I Want You To Be Normal Again
by PandasarusRex
Summary: After her parents died in the war, Cayden began living with the Elric's. 5 years later, Trisha Elric died, trying to bring her back, failed. She told herself that she was going to help them get their bodies back, but what happens when she is used against them? Do the brothers save her just in time to stop them from turning her into a homunculus? Does one confess his love for her?
1. Chapter 1

**(A/N: **_*****__**SPOILER ALERT**__*****_** This story contains scenes from the anime (2009)/manga series. I don't own anything from FMA, I only own my OCs. Rated T for the language and maybe other things, I don't know yet. :3 Well, that's all for now, Enjoy!)**

Cayden laid on the train bench across from Alphonse Elric, her head on Edward Elric's leg, eyes half closed, after being suddenly awoken by the train going over something. Al was staring out the window, watching the scenery change. She turned on her back, looking at the ceiling of the train. Glancing up she saw that Ed was watching her out of the corner of his eyes. He looked away, turning a slight shade of pink. She quietly laughed, the hood of her coat falling in her face.

Cayden didn't like being caught up in the crowds and being known by everyone like the brothers were, so she would cover her face with her hood. Cayden sighed, grabbing Ed's arm. Taking off the glove of his auto-mail arm, she started messing with it, turning it in all different directions, tracing the outline of the different parts. She looked up and saw that Ed was watching her again, face confused but somewhat amused. Cayden smiled up at him, taking the glove and putting it back on, placing his hand on her flat stomach. Edward blushed, turning a shade of dark red.

Cayden closed her eyes, holding onto Ed's arm as she started falling asleep to the sound of the train. It was happening again, the dream of what happened that night. The dream didn't happen that often but it did freak her out enough to haunt her. Reliving it more than once was punishment enough but it was her 'toll'.

After Ed and Al's mother died. The woman who had taken care of Cayden since he parents left to help with the war, the woman who had comforted her when they got the news that her parents had died. Helping Ed and Al draw a huge transmutation circle in their father's study. Smiling up at Edward, before bring their "mother" back, her hand in his. A bright flash of white light and ending up in a completely white room, huge gray door, engraved with writing behind her and a ghastly figure in front of her.

"What…Who are you?" Cayden's ten year old self asked.

"Oh, I glad you asked that." It threw up its hands as though it was rejoicing. "I am what you call the world. Or the universe, or perhaps God," it said. "or maybe the truth, and I am also..." It raised its hand and pointed at her. "You."

"What?" Cayden asked, watching the figure, not knowing black tentacles were coming up behind her.

"You wanted the truth! Well here it is!" The figure yelled as the tentacles grabbed onto Cayden, pulling her through the door.

Screaming Cayden struggled to get away from the tiny hands. Head pounding as she was pulled into the dark void. Then with a flash of bright light images and information poured into Cayden's head.

"Stop! Stop this! I can't take it!" Cayden yelled, tears rolling down her face.

She felt her hands burning and she looked down. She was being torn apart.

_What…what's happening?!_

Then everything vanished. Standing once again in front of the huge gray doors, Cayden wiped the tears from her eyes.

"You've seen the truth, now it's time to pay the toll." The figure from before said, appearing behind her.

"Toll?" Cayden asked, slowly turning around.

"Yes, the toll." The figure said, smiling widely.

Then the ghastly figure's left leg slowly grew flesh. Cayden gasped, quickly looking down at her own legs. Still there. Cayden quickly looked back up at the figure, gasping when she saw Ed behind it, missing his left leg.

"Edward!" Cayden yelled, running towards him.

His back was turned away from her as he stood before the gate, he slowly turned to face her, mouthing the words 'Rebound' as his gate opened up, pulling him back inside.

"No! Wait!" Cayden shouted as she reached her hand out to grab him, only to be grabbed by the tiny tentacle like hands, pulling her away from him.

Cayden fought the tiny hands, trying to get to Edward's gate, only to have it disappear. Cayden quickly looked around seeing another gate to her left. Alphonse sat smiling widely at her. Cayden looked at him confused as the gate pulled her back. There was another figure behind him. Another Alphonse? Only this one was sad and confused.

"Alphonse?" Cayden yelled, fighting her gate once more.

"Foolish girl, you shouldn't fight the truth." The Alphonse that was sitting down said, continuing to smile.

_That voice. That's not his voice!_

The Alphonse behind him shook his head as he began to break down. Cayden gasped as the full force of the gate yanked her back into the gate. The doors slowly closed as she looked back, struggling to go back. She felt pain in her hands. Looking down she saw that her hands were breaking down before her eyes.

_Is this…is this the toll?_

Then everything went black. Something, no, someone was screaming in pain. Cayden quickly opened her eyes, sitting up. First thing she saw was blood. A lot of it. Cayden looked herself up and down.

_Everything is still here. Then what is with at this blood? Ed? Al? _

Hearing something cry out pain, followed by mumbling about how everything went wrong, Cayden looked towards the sound in the dark room. She could barely make out a figure against the wall, a trail of blood coming from it. Cayden jumped up as fast as she could while her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

_Edward!_

Cayden struggled to get over to him, not looking at his leg. She already knew it was gone without needing to look, not to mention that she hated the sight of blood. Caedyn fell down, wheezing, only a couple feet away from him.

"Edward…" Cayden's voice slowly trailed off as she reached out for him.

Cayden started to see black spots as she used what energy she had left to crawl over to Edward. Cayden sat up next to him, looking into his lifeless eyes. Edward slowly turned his head to her as she grabbed his bloody little hand.

"He's…he's gone…" Ed whispered, tears forming in his eyes.

"Huh?" Cayden asked, letting go of his hand and looking down at her dress.

"Alphonse. My brother, he's gone…" Edward whispered, weakly pointing over to a pile of clothes on the floor.

_Al's clothes?_

Cayden gasped, tears forming in her eyes. Cayden grabbed a handful of fabric on her dress, ripping long strips off, wrapping them around Ed's leg, trying to stop the bleeding. Something screeched in front of them. Cayden looked up at Ed after she got the last of her make-shift bandages wrapped around his leg, his golden eyes stared in horror at the thing in the transmutation circle. Cayden looked toward the transmutation circle, smoke coming from it. Staring straight into a pair of reddish-purple eyes on the disfigured creature.

"M-mommy?" Cayden slowly got on her hands and knees, beginning to crawl to the creature.

Edward grabbed onto Cayden's leg, trying to stop her from going towards it.

"S-Still active…" Edward managed to say, pointing to the blue glowing transmutation circle.

Suddenly the creature screamed and the bright glow vanished from its eyes. Cayden quickly went back to Edward scared of it.

Cayden backed away, sitting next to Ed again, sighing.

"I'm bringing him back…" Edward whispered to himself, crawling over to a suit of armor, knocking it to the floor.

Cayden sat down, confused, watching Edward as he drew a blood rune on the inside of the armor.

"Damn it!" Edward yelled, "Give him back! That's my brother, damn it! I don't care what the toll is! Take my leg! Or my arm! Or even my heart! Just give him back! He's the only family I have left!"

Cayden sat terrorized, watching Edward's arm slowly break away as he screamed out in pain. Caedyn frantically ripped at her dress again, making long even strips. She ran over to Ed as the armor began to move, wrapping up what was left of his shoulder. Cayden backed up slowly as the armor put its arm around Ed, picking him up. She then when into a coughing fit as she fell down, blacking out.

Cayden quickly shot up, breathing hard. She kicked her legs over the side, putting her head in her hands.

"Again?" Al asked, looking at her, sounding worried.

Cayden managed a weak nodded. She looked around seeing Edward's concerned looked but no one else on the train had taken notice to what had happened. Sighing, she flipped her hood back, putting her hands on her train bench, leaning forward. Cayden turned her head at the sound of footstep approaching them. She made a small squeaking sound, pulling her hood over her head and leaned back.

The conductor walked by taking the microphone of the wall, talking into it, "We will be arriving at the station shortly, I repeat, we will be arriving at the station shortly."

Cayden sighed, leaning her head on Ed's arm, "So where are we going again?"

"Loire."

**(A/N: If you want to know Cayden's backstory(when she first started living with the Elric's) just ask and I'll start working on it. I haven't thought of a name of this chapter yet, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'd be grateful and I'll give credit to whoever came up with the name. This is just for fun so if you like it or want more just favorite and comment please.)**


	2. Chapter 2

"So this is Loire?" Cayden asked, putting her hands behind her head.

"Guess so." Al said, looking around.

Cayden laughed at Al, pushing him to knock him out of it, hearing something growl behind them, Al and Cayden turned quickly, ready to fight. Cayden clapped her hands and slamming them on the ground, bringing up a spear, only to see that it was Edward doubled over, holding his stomach and mumbling about food.

"Typical…" Cayden mumbled half amused, half pissed.

"So hungry…" Ed mumbled, words drifting off as he clutched onto his stomach.

"Ed, come on, there's food over there." Alphonse sighed, grabbing him by the back of his cloak, dragging him to the nearest restaurant.

Cayden shook her head, looking into her hip bag**(A/N: Small pouch with belt, **_**NOT**_** a fanny pack cx)**, seeing how many cenz she had. 60,000 left**(A/N: 5000 U.S. Dollars, sorry for all the A/N notes)**. Looking around, she spotted a little shop selling weapons and supplies. Finding Ed staring at her, she ran over to meet up with them.

"Here, get us something, I'm going to look at something." Cayden began, as she quickly turned away.

Cayden ran over to the little shop, flipping her hood up a little to get a better view of the items. Going straight to the weapon case she spotted a set of double pistols.

She squealed excitedly, "Such perfect craftsmanship! Such beautiful s- I'm acting like Winry…"

"Hello Miss." An elderly woman said with a smile.

"Oh, umm…Hello." Cayden smiled, folding her hands in front of her.

_"Children of God who dwell on Earth, have faith and thou shall be saved." The radio droned on. "The God of the Sun, Leto, enlightens thy path. Behold! The Lord having descended from his heavenly throne, shall save all from thy sins. For I am thy father…I am the emissary of the Sun God..."_

"Hey, what this?" Cayden asked, pointing at the radio on the counter.

"It's Father Cornello." The old woman affirmed.

"Who's that?" Cayden asked, opening her hip bag.

"You don't know who Father Cornello is?" The old woman asked, surprised.

"I'm new here, just got off the recent train, but I would like to know who he is." Cayden stated with a grin.

"He's the founder of the church of Leto, he has the 'power of miracles'. He came to the city a couple years ago and showed us the way of god." The old woman told her.

"Power of miracles?"

"Yes, yes, he can bring back the dead."

"Really?"

"Yes, it's incredible, now is there something you need dearie?" The old woman asked.

"Oh yes, I was wondering how much these cost?" Cayden asked, pointing to the pistols.

"20,000 cenz."

"Whoa, that's a lot."

"Yes, I know, but just for you I will throw in some of these throwing daggers."

"Oh, you don't have to do that!" Cayden said, frantically putting up her hands and shaking her head.

"Please, I insist." The old woman said, smiling as she took the pistols out of the case.

"Um…okay, thank you very much." Cayden said, rubbing the back of her head.

Cayden placed the money on the case next to the pistols as the old woman put a box on the table, pushing it and the pistols to Cayden.

"This there anything else you need?" The woman asked, smiling.

"No ma'am, thank you though." Cayden smiled, putting the pistols into the waistband of her shorts, behind her cloak, grabbing the small box.

Hearing something crash in the distant, Cayden stun around quickly, seeing Ed and Al standing over a broken radio.

"Everywhere they go they get into trouble or break something." Cayden sighed, turning back to the old woman, "Anyway, thank you, have a good day!"

"Hey, I got information." Cayden said as Alphonse drew a transmutation circle.

"So do we, something about a Father." Ed said, watching Alphonse place his hands over the circle, causing it to glow blue and spark.

"How's this?" asked Edward, casually glancing over his shoulder at the shopkeeper, pointing at the fixed radio.

"... What? How did you…?" the shopkeeper said, gawking at the once broken radio that continued to broadcast the sermon. "You can work miracles!?"

"Say what? Work miracles? Please…" Cayden snorted, crossing her arms.

"We're Alchemists." Alphonse told the man, picking up the radio and putting in on the counter.

"Just call us the Elric brothers. We're sort of famous." said Ed, crossing his arms over his chest as he shot the people a cocky smirk.

"Elric, eh... the Elric's?" the men seemed to be trying to rack their brains for any sort of information on the subject. Muttering filled the air as the men looked at each other, trying to remember.

"Oh! I've heard of them before!" a man suddenly shouted out, "They say that the older brother is a State Alchemist!

Someone else shouted out, "And their mysterious companion is said to be as good as he is even though he's not a State Alchemist!"

"Did you just say 'he'?" Cayden growled, taking off her long hooded cloak, throwing it in Ed's face.

"You're a girl?!" The shopkeeper said in disbelief.

"Yeah! I'm a girl! And this girl is gonna stick her foot up you're a-" Cayden shouted, cut off by Alphonse holding her back and covering her mouth.

After Cayden settled down, Al still held her close to him as someone shouted, "They call him the 'Fullmetal Alchemist, 'Edward Elric'!"

"Yep!" Edward chuckled, then glared at Cayden, throwing her cloak over his shoulder.

Then everything happened so fast. Cayden and Alphonse were suddenly swept away by the men as they stared at them in awe.

"So you're those rumored alchemists!"

"Hey! I already told that shopkeeper I'm a girl! Weren't any of you listening!? That means I'm not one of the Elric _brothers_! Are you guys stupid?! Do I look like a boy?!"

The men ignored Cayden's clarification and kept asking questions.

"Leave me alone!" Cayden yelled, clapping her hands as she bent down hitting the ground, the soil under her lifting her into the air, away from all the men's bombarding questions.

"Ed! Catch me!" Cayden shouted, jumping of the pillar, landing on top of him, "I told you to catch me." She grumbled, crossing her arms.

"Just…get…off." Ed wheezed, glaring at her.

The men still surrounded Alphonse, oblivious to the fact that Cayden was no longer over there. _Idiots…_

"I get it! Since you're wearing this armor, you're also called 'Fullmetal'!"

Alphonse then put his hands up in defense, laughing nervously while shaking his head 'no'. "Um, I'm not him..."

"Huh? What do you mean you aren't him?"

"It's shorty over there?" Everyone turned to look at Ed.

"Don't call me small! I'm not a midget! Or a shrimp! Don't call me SMALL!" Edward screamed, throwing random objects at the group of men who ran away, looking for cover.

"Ed, calm down. They didn't say all that." Al said, holding him back.

"I'm the Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric!" Edward said angrily, pointing to himself.

"I'm the little brother, Alphonse Elric." Alphonse introduced himself.

Cayden stayed silent when the men looked over at her wondering who she was. Edward put his arm around Cayden's shoulder, pulling her close to him.

"Hello!" a voice cheerfully called out. "Wow it's little lively today!" Cayden turned to see a girl with long brown hair and pink bangs running up to the shop.

"Oh, hello, Rose." the shopkeeper greeted. "Going to the church again?"

"Yes, I need to make some offerings," Rose, told him, smiling. "The usual, please." Then she noticed the three of you. "Oh, new faces? I haven't seen you three around here before."

"They said they're alchemists. Seems like their looking for something." the shopkeeper told Rose. Rose took the bag of her purchase offerings. She trotted a few steps away, but then stopped in her tracks and twirled around, flashing them a bright smile.

"I hope you find what you're looking for!" Rose cheerfully said to them. "May Leto protect you!"

"... Thanks?" Cayden replied, giving Ed a confused look.

"She's become a lot happier lately." Someone commented.

"It's all thanks to the Father." Another man agreed with a nod of his head.

"Huh?" Edward questioned, eyes meeting Cayden's, who just shrugged.

"That girl, she doesn't have any family, and no top of that her boyfriend died in an accident last year..." the shopkeeper said.

"Oh, that poor girl." Cayden said, watching Rose run off with her purchase.

Cayden quickly looked back to the men and the shopkeeper, who continued their conversation.

"Yeah. It was hard to see her like that, we all felt bad for her." One of the men said, "What saved her were the teachings taught by Father Cornello, the messenger of the Sun God, Leto!"

"Preach on! He can raise the dead and the souls of his loyal followers! The Father's miracles prove it!" Someone else said.

"Raise…the dead…that's what that old woman was telling me about." Cayden mumbled, looking over at Alphonse as he shook his head.

"'Rebirth to the dead', huh...?" Edward muttered. "I don't think I like this."

"Not one bit." Cayden agreed, shooting Ed a grin.

"_Pray and have faith. All thy prayers shall be answered."_


	3. Chapter 3

"Wow." Cayden said, hands in her pockets as she looked up at the cathedral.

"What's so great about this guy, anyway?" Edward questioned, crossing his arms, standing next to the giant statue, "He hardly looks like a guy worth worshiping."

"Ed, why are we here?" Cayden asked, sighing.

"Yeah, why are we?" Al asked, turning away from the giant statue.

"Oh, it's you three!" Cayden looked over her shoulder, meeting the kind eyes of Rose.

Cayden turned all the way around, smiling at her.

"So that's why we're here? Ooooh, Al, Ed likes the Rose chick." Cayden giggled as she leaned closer to Al, just loud enough for the boys to hear.

"Do not!" Edward yelled at Cayden just as Rose got closer.

"Are you here to join the church of Leto?" Rose asked, standing next to Al.

"Naw... sorry, but we aren't religious." Edward informed her, a smirk plastered on his face.

"If you have faith, you'll grow taller for sure! Miracles do happen!" Rose shouted with sincerity, fists raised in determination.

Cayden busted out laughing, putting a hand on the statue as she watched Edward.

"What was that?!" Edward growled, looking like he wanted to kill her.

"She didn't mean it that way!" Al said, grabbing onto his brothers arms to stop him from attacking her.

"Sheesh…" Edward muttered to himself when Alphonse let go of him, plopping down on the bench, "How can you honestly believe that junk?" Edward queried, his gaze sweeping towards Rose. "Do you really believe that if you pray to God the dead will come back to life?"

"Yes," Rose replied, closing her eyes, "I do...!"

Edward sighed, realizing a puff of air, he reaching into his pocket and pulled out a small, old, weathered book, "Water: 35 liters, Carbon: 20kg, Ammonia: 4 liters, Lime: 1.5 kg, Phosphorus: 800 g, Salt: 250 g, Saltpeter: 100 g, Sulfur: 80 g, Silicon: 80 g, And 15 other elements in small qualities…"

Rose stared at him, overwhelmed with all the information he had just listened off to her, "…Huh?"

"That's the total makeup of the average human body." Edward calculated, staring at the pages of his small book with a rather glazed look, continuing, "Modern science knows all this, but there has never been a single example of successful human transmutation. It's like there's some missing ingredient...Scientists have been trying to find it for hundreds of years, pouring tons of money into research, and to this day they still don't have a theory." Edward closed his eyes, snapping his travel log shut.

"They say science is a lost cause, but I think it's better than sitting around praying and waiting for something to happen. For that matter, the elements found in a human being…is all junk that you can buy in any market with a child's allowance. Humans are pretty cheaply made." Edward chuckled.

"People aren't OBJECTS! That's an insult to the creator! God will punish you for saying things like that!" Rose shouted angrily. Edward unfazed by the girl's outburst, laughed in reply, placing his travel log back in his coat pocket.

"It's ironic that we scientists…who don't believe in God…are in sense the closest things to him." Ed continued in a light tone, allowing his gaze to drift over to the giant statue of Leto.

"What pride…" Rose huffed, narrowing her eyes at the boy sitting on the bench. "Are you saying that you're God's equal?"

Edward released a low chuckle, his eyes sliding shut as his lips formed a smirk. "Well…it's like that myth about the hero…" he explained, "He made wings out of wax so he could fly…but when he got too close to the sun…to God…the wax melted and he crashed to the ground…"

"Well, look at Mr. Scientific over here." Cayden shot Ed a grin, hands on her hips. Edward opened his eyes and shooting her a grin and childishly stuck out his tongue in response. "Oh, real mature, science boy, real mature..." Cayden moaned in a sarcastic tone, causing him to laugh.

xXxXx

Cornello stood outside his cathedral, waving to enormous crowd before him. The people were throwing flowers into the air, cheering for their "Holiness". Holding out his hand, a small flower fell into Cornello's palm. Covering the flower with both hands, red sparks began to emit from the ring that Cornello was wearing. Raising his arms above his head, the man opened his hands to reveal a giant sun flower, causing the crowd to go wild at his recently performed "miracle".

"So that's it... What do you guys think?" Edward asked, watch his 'Holiness' and his stupid act.

"That can only be alchemy, no doubt about it." Cayden sighing, frowning, "So Cornello really is a fraud after all, huh?"

Edward nodded his head in agreement, standing atop his suitcase to get a better view of Cornello in action, "That's what I thought too." he mumbled.

Cayden took out the box, opening it, 11 small daggers, each on their own belt.

"Wow…did she know the belts were in here?" Cayden whispered to herself, taking one out to examine it.

She bent over, strapping two of them to each of her thighs, underneath her shorts to hide them. She took another out and strapped it to her arm, looking over at Ed she left out a small laugh and whispered 'shorty' before looking back up at Cornello.

"So, you came to see him after all!" Rose's voice said from behind the group.

Cayden looked over her shoulder to see Rose make her way in between the huge crowd to join them as she put the box back into her hip bag.

"See!? He _DOES_ have miraculous powers. Father Cornello is the sun god's child!" Rose smiled up at Ed.

"Nope. That's alchemy no matter how you look at it. Cornello's a fraud." Edward stated, placing a hand on his chin while keeping his gaze locked on the man.

Rose narrowed her eyes in irritation, opening her mouth to lash out at Edward, only to be cut off by Alphonse, "But he can bypass laws for some reason."

"Yeah… That's the problem right there." Edward sighed, running his hand through his hair.

"The laws?" Rose seemed confused by his words.

Cayden just smiled, eyes still on his 'Holiness'.

"Most people think that alchemy can do anything and create whatever we want…" Alphonse began, trying his best to explain this to the simple minded young woman beside him. "…But in reality there are certain concrete laws."

Rose's face showed that she was pissed at Al's 'simple minded' comment.

"I guess the big concepts are 'The Law of Conservation of Mass' and 'The Law of Natural Providence'. Although some alchemists conjure with the four elements, or with the three principles…" Alphonse trailed off, noticing that Rose was staring at him with a dumbfounded expression.

"Uh... let me try…" Cayden piped up with a small laugh, "A substance can only be created from the same type of substance. For example, if something's mostly water, you can only use it to make other things with the attributes of water...sorta like this."

Clapping her hands she placed them on Ed's arm, bring a sword out of it. Ed clapped his hands, turning it back, giving Cayden a 'did you seriously just do that' look. Cayden stuck out her tongue, crossing her arms, giving a cute little pout.

"In other words, the basics of alchemy is the 'Equivalent Exchange'!" Edward laughed, looking over to Rose, raising a fist in triumph.

Pushing Edward off his suitcase, causing him to fall face first on the ground, Cayden continued, "That means to obtain that something, something of equal value most be lost, but that old guy is making too much out of too little… Alchemy-wise, that's breaking the law."

"See! So why don't you three just have faith that it's a miracle already?!" Rose asked heatedly.

None of them paid any attention to Rose, all too busy looking at the ring on his left hand.

"Big brother…do you think…?" Alphonse trailed off, eyes not leaving the red gem.

"It's possible..." Edward replied simply, hopping off of his suitcase, "I think we've found it."

Cayden shivered slightly as Edward lean forward, whispering in her ear, his warm breath brushing down her neck, "Play along." Edward instructed in a quietly, taking her hand in his.

"Hey lady, I'm starting to get real interested in this religion!" Edward called out to Rose, a wide grin appearing on his lips.

"Ah, yes! We'd LOVE to speak to his holiness. Do you think you could take us to see him?" Cayden asked, clasping her hands together and smiling innocently at the religious girl.

Rose seemed overjoyed. "Oh my! So you're finally starting to believe!"

"You could say that…" Cayden whispered a little too loudly, receiving a painful kick from Edward.

"Did you have to kick me with your left leg?!" Cayden growled in his ear.

"I can kick you with my other leg if you'd like." Edward shot a wicked grin at her.

"Asshole." Cayden glared at Edward.

xXxXx

"Please, come this way." Cray instructed, motioning towards an opened door in the corridor of the church.

Cayden paused at the door, narrowing her eyes at the two men that stood inside, each holding long spears.

"His holiness is very busy, so it's not easy to get an audience with him. You three are very lucky." One of the men stated with a smile.

"Uh, sure..." Cayden gave the man an odd stare.

Cayden slowly walked into the room, admiring the architecture of the building, walking further ahead, "This place is nice…"

"I'll try not to talk for too long." Edward hummed, trailing after Cray with Alphonse at his heels.

"Yes, let's end it right away." Cray agreed, whirling around, pulling out a gun and forcefully shoving the barrel of his weapon into Alphonse's left eye, startling everyone.

Cray fired the gun and Alphonse's metal head went flying, hitting the ground with a small 'clang'. The two men by the door used their spears to block Edward from moving forward as Cayden stared at Alphonse's head a couple feet away, running towards it, Cray tripped her. Pointing his gun at Cayden, Cray yelled at her, "Get up!"

Cayden slowly got up, hands over her head. Cray grabbed her by the arm, twirling her around, putting her arm behind her back. Slamming the barrel of the gun into the side of her head, Cray yelled, "Anyone moves and this boy dies."

"Are you freaking kidding me?! I'm a GIRL!" Cayden yelled, stomping on Cray's foot.

Cray yelped in pain, hitting Cayden in the head with the butt of his pistol.

"Ow! Jeez…you could be a little nicer" Cayden grumbled bitterly, giving the man an annoyed look.

"Don't you hurt her" Edward snarled at Cray, forcing himself forward, only to be stopped by the guards.

"And what if I do?! What are you gonna do pipsqueak?!" Cray yelled, watching Edward, smirking.

Rose whipped around to face Cray, her face showing her fear and anger, saying, "Brother Cray! What are you doing?!" she demanded.

"Rose, these are heathens that were trying to entrap their holiness. They are evil." you arched a brow, amazed how this man could lie so easily right through his teeth. Rose seemed to have a hard time believing that.

"What!? But his holiness would NEVER let you do this…let you…" Rose trailed off, her voice quivering slightly as her gaze fell onto Alphonse's armored head.

"He _did_ allow it!" Cray clarified with a smirk, pushing his pistol into Cayden's head again, "The words of his holiness are the words of God. This is the will of God!" Cray shouted, moving to pull the trigger.

"The will of God? You people have some serious problems if you believe that fraud is a messenger of God?!" Cayden laughed, wincing when Cray pushed the barrel into her head harder.

"Oh..." Alphonse's hand shot out and grabbing Cray's pistol, pulling it away from Cayden's head, "Guess there's some really bad gods out there."

Cayden and Ed sighed in relief that Al got there just in time to stop Cray from shooting.

Cray's jaw dropped, his eyes widening in fear when he realized that there was nothing inside Al's armor,"Wha...!?" a startled scream left the terrified man's lips.

Edward laughed as he grabbed the hand of the man on his left, pushing him down and grabbing onto his shirt, easily flipping him over his shoulder before slamming his fist into the man's chest, knocking him unconscious.

"Whoa! Watch it, Al!" Cayden ducked, barely avoiding Al's fist as it crashed into Cray's face.

The other man near Ed screamed, quickly rushing towards the door to escape. Edward saw him, grabbing Al's head, throwing it at him, knocking him unconscious, "Strike!" Edward yelled triumphantly.

"My head!" Alphonse yelled at his brother, annoyed.

"Wh…wh…wh…" A voice said from behind them, "What is this?" Rose shrieked, gesturing wildly towards Alphonse.

"Nothing special…" Edward said, knocking his knuckle against Al's chest-plate.

"It's just what it looks like." Alphonse added, pointing inside himself.

"Th…there's nothing inside…it's empty…!?" Rose whimpered, her whole body quivering at the sight.

Rose quickly looked to Cayden, seeing if it was just some sick joke. Cayden just put up her hands as if saying don't ask me.

"You could say…" Cayden began, "…That this is what happens when you commit the greatest sin…when you trespass in God's domain."

Edward huffed quietly, turning his back on Rose so that she wouldn't see the pained expression on his face. "Well, let's just save that story for another time…" He looked at the unconscious men. "You saw God's true nature, didn't you?"

"No! It has to be some kind of mistake!" she cried in protest.

"Aww man…she's seen all this and she still believes in that fraud?" Edward complained, shooting the young woman a disproving glare.

"Oh well…" Cayden huffed.

Edward turned quickly to Cayden, mouth open to say something, but closed it when he saw the bruise Cray had given Cayden when he slammed the gun into her head. His eyes widen slightly as he tilted her head upwards to look at it closer. He ran his thumb over it, frowning.

"Are you okay? That looked like it hurt…" He asked, looking into her blue eyes.

"Yeah. It's fine, just don't touch it." Cayden growled, shooting him an annoyed glance.

Edward laughed quietly, turning to Rose, "You ready to face the truth?

Cayden walked over to Cray, smirking, "You bastard…", as she kicked him.

"Cayden! Let's go!" Edward shouted, waving his hands around.

Cayden laughed, sticking out her tongue, running to catch up to Alphonse and Edward.


	4. Chapter 4

"Is this Cornello's room? The one that Rose told us about?" Alphonse questioned, gesturing towards the door before you.

"Let's see…" Edward said, reaching out for the door handle, hand faltering as the door opened by itself, creaking, "Well... I guess that means 'come in'."

"Do we have to?" Cayden asked, grabbing onto Ed's arm.

"Ooooh, is wittle Caedywn scared of the big bad fwaud?" Edward teased her, poking her.

"Yesh, wittle Caedywn is scared." Cayden growled under her breath, punching him in the arm, only receive a flash of pain shoot up her arm.

Cayden swore grabbing onto her shoulder.

"Just come on…" Edward laughed, grabbing her wrist and pulling her into the room, Alphonse following closely.

The sound of the door slamming shut behind them caused them to turn quickly. Cayden looked around her eyes freezing on an elderly man making his way down the stairs.

"Umm…Ed?" Cayden said, tapping on his shoulder.

"Yeah?" Ed looked over his shoulder at her, following her gaze to the old man, "Oh…"

"Welcome to the church of the great Leto. Did you come to hear me preach?" The old man said, smiling.

"Yeah, by all means, teach us." Edward said, giving a small smirk, "…like maybe about how you use your lame alchemy to deceive your followers!"

"I-I'm not sure what you mean. Please don't confuse alchemy with my miracles." Cornello said, acting innocent.

"Drop the act, Cornello, you know exactly what you're doing!" Cayden yelled, pointing at Cornello, accusingly.

Cornello ignored Cayden's outburst, continuing, "If you saw for yourself, you'd believe."

"Yeah, I've seen it all right…and what I couldn't understand was how you're able to do transmutation that goes against the laws." Edward said, still smirking.

"That's why I'm telling you it's _not_ alchemy." Cornello began, raising his hand to scratch his head.

"And then it came to me…" Edward cut the old man off, not paying him any attention, "The Philosopher's Stone." He paused, watching the old man's face slightly light up with recognition, "_THAT'S_ how you do it, right?" Edward questioned.

Edward released a low chuckle, his lips slowly curving into a smirk as he said, "Like maybe…just maybe…it's that ring"

Cornello's smile instantly disappeared from his face, silence filling up the room.

"Heh... the government gets their money's worth out of you, don't they? I guess you saw through the whole thing." Cornello smirked, his voice no longer sweet, but cold and bitter, "Correct!" He yelled, holding up his hand, showing off the red stoned ring, continuing, "The Philosopher's Stone, the legendary catalyst, the amplifier of all alchemical processes. With this, I can conjure at the minimum price, for the maximum result!"

"How long I've searched for that…" Edward rasped, giving a weak smile.

"Hmph! What's with the jealous look in your eyes!? What do _YOU_ want with the stone for? Honor? Money?" Cornello growled, a devious smirk plastered on his face.

"And what about you? What do you get out of founding this phony religion? If it's money you want you can make as much as you want with the stone." Cayden cut in, narrowing her eyes, reaching for one of her daggers.

Cornello laughed, shaking his head, "It's not about the money. Well, I do want money, but I can get that with almost no effort…in the form of donations from my flock." Cornello mused, rubbing his chin. "What I really need is followers who will give their lives for me."

"That's not right!" Cayden hissed, stepping forward.

"But think about it! An invincible army of fanatics with no fear of death!" Cornello cried joyously. "Soon I'll have more than enough people! Just watch! Within a few years time this entire nation will be mine!"

"Well, fine, but I really don't care about that…" Edward sighed, swinging his arms as if to bypass the subject, "Let's move on…"

"WHAT!?" Cornello yelled in disbelief, "DON'T BELITTLE MY AMBITION BY SAYING YOU _'DON'T CARE'_! YOU BETTER CARE! You're a member of the military, after all!"

"You know, to be honest, I could care less about my country _OR_ the military." Edward informed the man, "I'll be blunt! Give me the Philosopher's Stone! If you do, I'll stay quiet about the scam you've been pulling on everybody."

"Hmph! You'd try to bargain with _ME_…?" Cornello began to laugh, "My followers would never believe the words of an outsider like you! The people of this town LOVE me! They think my words come from GOD! No matter how much noise you make, no matter what evidence you have, they'll NEVER listen to you! THOSE IDIOTS WILL BELIEVE ANYTHING I TELL THEM! I'VE COMEPLETLY FOOLED THEM!"

"Wow... You are smart!" Edward drawled, clapping his hands in a sarcastic manner. "Thanks for telling me how you do it. You're right. Your followers would never listen to a word I say."

Edward cast a sideways glance at Alphonse as he began to unlatch his chest-plate. Alphonse kneeled on the ground and removed his chest-plate from his body, dropping it onto the ground and pulling back the small cloth inside him to reveal Rose.

"But what about her words?" Ed finished, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder towards the shocked girl stored inside Alphonse's armor.

"R-Rose!?" Cornello's face paled when he saw her, "What is the meaning of this…?"

"Father! Is everything you said just now true!?" Rose cried franticly climbing out of Alphonse's armor, "Were you fooling us this whole time!? Your miracles aren't real? The power of God can't grant my wish? YOU CAN'T BRING MY DARLING BACK AGAIN?!"

"Hmm... it's true that I'm not God's emissary…" Cornello began as Alphonse reached down and picked up his chest-plate, re-attaching it back to his body again, "…But with this stone, it may be possible to transmute living beings, which so many alchemists have tried and failed. Rose, I will resurrect him!"

"Rose, don't listen to him!" Alphonse yelled, continuing, "He's lying!"

Cornello extended his hand, motioning for her to join him, "Rose, be a good girl and come here."

"If you go, you can never come back!" Edward told Rose in a firm tone, glancing over his shoulder at her.

"What's the matter? You belong with us. I'm the only one who can grant you your wish, isn't that so? Think about your darling. And come!" Cornello commanded.

Rose made her way toward Cornello, pausing in the middle of the room, turning around to face them, "I-I'm sorry guys…but this…this is…the only choice I can make…"

She turned back toward Cornello, walking a little faster to join him as he reached up to a small lever, hidden halfway behind a banner. Something slowly creaked open from the darkness. Cayden quickly whipped around as a chimera walked out of the darkness, growling and baring its fangs. Half lion, half lizard thingy.

"The Philosopher's Stone is truly wonderful…" Cornello began, "It can even create new life…like this. Have you ever seen a chimera?"

"Looks like this one might be tough to play with empty handed. So…" Edward sighed at Cornello's attempt to be a badass, kneeling down he slammed his hands onto the ground. Sparks flying a metal spear began forming, slowly rising out of the ground.

"Ergh... You made a weapon from the floor without using a transmutation circle?!" Cornello cried, taking a shocked step back, "So you deserve the title of State Alchemist after all! But that still won't be enough!"

The chimera rushed at Edward, passing him before Ed could react, going straight for Cayden.

"Aw hell no, you mutant furball!" Cayden growled, whipping out her pistols out from behind her, about to fire just as Edward appeared in front of her blocking the chimera's attack.

"Shit!" Ed growled as the chimera's claws slashed through his spear, grabbing onto his leg where the monster made contact.

"Ha ha ha ha ha! Well?! How do you like the taste of claws that can cut through iron?" Cornello cackled.

Rose's hands flew up to cover her mouth, her eyes widening in terror. "Edward!"

Edward lowered his head, his bangs covering his eyes for a moment until he jerked his head back up to reveal his smug smirk. "... PSYCH!"

The claws that the chimera used to slash Edward broke off. Ed lifted up his left leg, slamming it into the chimera's chest, sending the thing barreling backwards.

"Sorry, these are custom made." Edward smirked up at Cornello as Cayden let out a small laugh.

"Wha-what's the matter!? If your claws won't work, then bite him to death!" Cornello snarled at the creature.

The animal released a fierce roar, charging at them again. Edward held up his right arm, blocking the chimera, only to have it sink into his arm. Ed smirked as the creature chewed on his arm.

"What's the matter, kitty? Taste bad?" Edward taunted, brow arched in amusement.

"Hmm…I wonder?" Cayden laughed, raising her pistols up aiming at the chimera.

Edward's left foot smashed into the chimera's jaw sending the creature flying back.

"Look at me, Rose." Edward yelled, grabbing the shredded fabric of his cloak that was covering his right arm. "This is what happens when you use alchemy on humans…this is what happens to sinners who trespass in God's domain!"

Cornello gulped, his eyes watching Ed closely as he ripped his cloak off, "Automail... full steel prosthetic. 'Fullmetal' prosthetic so that's why…THE FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST!"

"Come down here and face us, you third-rate fraud." Edward challenged, smirking, "I'll show you there's no comparison between us!"

"Look at them, Rose! Those three dared to do the one thing forbidden to alchemists...the unspeakable crime of Human Transmutation! THEY'VE COMMITTED THE WORST POSSIBLE SIN!"

"Hey Baldy! Shut your mouth! That's what you were gonna do to bring her boyfriend back so you can just shut the hell up!" Cayden growled, "...We thought we could create life. We were positive that...we could bring our mother back...all we ever wanted was just to see our mother again. Even if it meant breaking the laws of alchemy. But…the resurrection failed. When it failed, Edward lost his leg and Al's entire body was taken from him. Ed gave up his arm to bring back his brother. I may seem like nothing is wrong with me but I relive that night over and over, yeah, it's not as bad as what happened to them but it goes to show we fucked up."

"Heh. The three of us tried to resurrect one person and this is what happened..." Edward said with a smirk on his face, "This is what it takes to raise the dead, Rose. Are you ready to make that sacrifice?!"

Rose flinched at the tone of his voice quickly looking away from him.

"Heh heh heh..." Cornello chuckled. "And you call yourself a State Alchemist! Don't make me laugh!"

"Shut up!" Cayden yelled at him, firing her gun at him, bullet going straight into the wall beside his head. "What about you? Without the stone, you can't do anything, you…you third-rate fraud!"

"I see, I see... So that's why you want the Philosopher's stone." Cornello smirked, "Good idea. If you used this, you might be able to transmute humans for real, eh?"

"Don't even think for a second that that's what we are going to do with it! I just want to get their bodies back to normal!" Cayden growled, "Now, we'll ask again. Give us the stone."

"Heh heh...you fools are the ones who came too close to God and fell to Earth..." Cornello placed his cane onto his left hand. A flash of red light, along with some red sparks, began to emit from the ring. When the light and sparks ceased, in Cornello's hand now lay a machine gun. He aimed it at the three of them. "If that's the case, then this time I'll make sure...TO SEND YOU TO GOD PERMANENTLY!"

Cornello began firing rows and rows of bullets at them. Yelping, Cayden clapped her hands, slamming them on the ground, bring up a barrier to protect herself and Edward.

"Sorry, but God doesn't like us very much!" Cayden yelled, smirking up at Cornello.

"Tch!" Cornello then noticed Alphonse trying to take Rose away. "Why you...!" He fired at him, not even considering that he might he the girl. Bullets bounced off Al as he ran away with Rose.

"Cayden! Al! We're leaving now!" Edward called out, all of them running towards the door.

"Fool! The exit is rigged! Only I can open it from here!" Cornello shouted after you.

"Oh, really!?" Cayden shouted, running over to the nearest wall, clapping her hands and making her own door, "Then I'll make another exit!"

"WHAT?!" Cornello cried in disbelief as Cayden kicked the door open, startling guards that were standing next to the original door.

"Hi! How ya doin'?!" Cayden shouted as she fired her pistols at the guards as the group ran away.

"Don't just stand there! Go after them!" Cornello yelled, voice echoing down the hall as more guards appeared, watching them run down the hall, "They're pagans who want to destroy our religion! Get them! Hurry!"

They turned quickly down a hall, blocked by guards.

"There they are!" one cried out, pulling out his weapon, "Hey you! Stop!"

"Hey, kiddos. What are two little boys going to do with their bare hands?"

"Again with this boy shit?! I'm a girl! ANYBODY GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?!" Cayden snarled, taking out the first row of guards by clapping her hands and hitting the wall, fists of brick flying into their faces, "BRING IT ON!"

Alphonse jumped forward, kicking the rest of guards, knocking them out. Running quickly down the hall, looking back frequently, they came up to a room that caught Ed's attention.

"Huh? What's this?" he asked Rose.

"The broadcasting room. This is where Father Cornello delivers his sermons over the radio..." Rose explained.

"Oh really..." he chuckled, a devious look on his face.

"Uh-oh. He's got a bad idea..." Al muttered.

xXxXx

Cayden walked around the tiny little office, swinging her arms back and forth, "Is this gonna work?"

"Well, duh, it's gonna work, he's not that smart." Edward shot her a grin.

"True." Cayden laughed, walking over to Ed.

She sat on the desk next to him, hitting the 'on' switch as footsteps approached.

Cornello burst into the room, yelling, "There you are, you brats! Prepare to die!"

"Ugh…just give it up." Edward sighed, annoyed, "Everyone will soon find out, that you've used them."

"Shut up! Everyone within the church is under my direct control!" Cornello yelled.

"My, my. I feel real sorry for those poor followers of yours." Cayden said, smiling, joining in the conversation.

"Followers are just pawns to use for war! I don't have time to be sorry for mere pawns! If I ask them to, they'll die happy and fulfilled, believing that they did it for god! I'll mass-produce them! Limitless fanatics, from the masses of idiots who can't even tell alchemy from miracles! Did you think you could stop my plans so easily!? YOU UNDERESTIMATED THE POWER OF BLIND FAITH!" Cornello laughed, evilly.

Cayden and Edward exchanged a glance and busted out laughing as well.

"What so funny!?" Cornello demanded.

"This is why I keep saying you're a third-rate, baldy." Edward said, chuckling.

"You little brat! How dare you insult me!" Cornello growled.

Cayden laughed, holding up the switch, "Know what this is, Mr. Baldypants."

Cornello stared at the switch and quickly looked down seeing the mike facing him. Slowly putting the pieces together he looked back up at the two.

"You... You couldn't have... YOU LITTLE RATS!" Cornello screamed, "How long has that switch been on?!"

"Hmm…let me think…from the very beginning." Cayden laughed, "You just exposed your entire plan, dumbass!"

"Wha…wha... WHAT?!" Cornello yelled, "You dumb brats..." Cornello put his left hand on his cane and, once again, started transforming it, "I'm going to kill y-"

"No, you're not!" Cayden shouted, jumping off the desk, clapping her head and turning her metal bracelet into a sword, stabbing straight through Cornello's still transforming arm, "Didn't we tell you? There's no comparison between us."

"I won't... I won't give up..." Cornello snarled through his teeth, "AS LONG AS I HAVE THIS STONE I CAN MAKE MIRACLES AGAIN AND AGAIN!"

Cornello placed his gun over the ring, the red stone glowing and releasing sparks, but quickly faded causing Cornello's hand to morph into the gun

"GAAAGGGHH! MY ARM! MY ARM!" Cornello screamed, clutching his disfigured arm.

"You call that a miracle?!" Cayden growled at the man, slightly stepping away, freaked out about his arm. **(A/N: Who wouldn't be? o-o)**

"Shut UP! It was just a rebound! Don't make a big deal over one or two arms!" Edward yelled at the old man as he clutched onto his arm.

Cayden heard something snap and quickly focused on the ring as the small stone separated itself from the ring, rolling on the ground, crumbling away and getting caught up by the wind.

"Ed…? It just…broke…isn't the Philosopher's Stone supposed to be perfect material? H-How can it break?!" Cayden asked, slumping to the ground, staring at the place the fully intact stone used to be.

"It's…it's a fake…" Ed whispered, staring down at her.

"W-we came all the way here…went through all of that…hoping to fix you guys and the stone's a fake?!" Cayden mumbled, just barely able to be heard, she grabbed the old man by the shirt, getting in his face, "Did you know anything about this?!"

"I-I don't know anything! I didn't know that could happen! P-please spare me! If it's gone, there's nothing I can do! Please don't hurt me…" Cornello begged, staring straight into Cayden's eyes as she threw him away from her.

"Hey... Old man..." Ed whispered, angry.

"Uh... Y-yes!?" Cornello trembled, looking up at him.

"First you lied to the townspeople, then you tried to kill us...and now, after all this crap you put us through, you're telling me the stone was fake?" Edward clapped his hands together and touched the ground, a large statue coming out of the ground.

"This better be some kind of sick joke!" Ed yelled, clapping his hands again, causing the fist to land right in front of Cornello, scaring him half to death, making him pass out.

"Cayden, let's go." Ed said, walking to the door, turning to wait for her.

She just sat there, staring in the same place.

"Oh, you big baby." Edward sighed, walking back over to her, picking her up.

Cayden leaned her head against his shoulder, tears beginning rolling down her cheeks.

xXxXx

"It was a fake?" Alphonse asked, disappointment in his voice.

The three of them sat in what was let of the church, Cayden half asleep in Ed's lap.

"Yeah. It was all a waste of time." Edward replied, sighing, "Oh well, I guess we'll look somewhere else..."

Edward sighing picking up Cayden, turning to leave the church when a quiet voice stopped him. There Rose was, kneeling on the ground, staring up at the statue Ed had made.

"No…there must some mistake...I mean...he told me he would come back to life..."

"Give it up, Rose. It could never have..."

"What did you do to me...?" Tears ran down her face, "What do I do? What am I supposed to believe in now!? Are you going to tell me? Well, are you?"

"...You need to figure that out on your own." Edward walked past her, "Stand up and walk. Keep going forward. At least you have strong legs to take you there."

Rose kept quiet, staying on the ground as Ed and Al walked down the front steps of the church.

**(A/N: OH, SNAP, SNAP, SPARK, SPARK, IT'S TIME TO LIGHT UP THE DIGGY, DIGGY DARK! I AM THE FLAME ALCHEMIST AND I AM GONNA BE FÜHRER! My beat is high, but my rhymes are purer, I like the ladies in the miniskirts and I pose in the mirror without my fancy shirts, I'll set your heart on fire, WOOSH, WOOSH, you know my heart burns bright too, KABOOM, KABOOM, my fire power tonight is feeling just right! –Roy Mustang's hold music rap.**

**Yup…I had to do it. cx Okay, I'm not sure if I want to do the Youswell Coal Mine and the train thing, but if anyone is wondering the homunculus thing will be coming soon there's just this thing I want to do when they encounter Scar, if you've read the mange extras you probably already know what I'm going to do but I still want too cx anyway Favorite and Review for more.)**


	5. Cayden's Backstory

**(A/N: Someone asked for the backstory, well here it is, I'm not adding the part where they try to bring their mother back since that's already in the first chapter and if you're this far, you already read it. ^-^ Anyway Enjoy!)**

"Mommy, where are we going? And where did Daddy go?" A little blonde girl, around four years old, asked as she looked up at her mother, blue eyes shining bright with wonder.

"We are going to see Auntie Trisha and the boys. Won't that be fun?" Her mother replied, smiling.

"Oh yes! Yes!" The little girl cheered, spinning in a circle.

The two walked hand and hand along the dirt path up to a two story house. The mother knocked on the door.

"I'll be there in a min- Ed give your brother back that toy!" A sweet voice said through the door.

Smiling, a brown-haired woman opened the door, "Hello Alexandria."

"Hello Trisha." Alexandria said with a smile.

Trisha looked down, spotting the little girl.

Kneeling down, she smiled, saying, "Why, hello Cayden. Are you here to play with the boys?"

"Uh…" Cayden looked up at her mother, receiving a small nod from her, "Yes."

"In that case, why don't you go see them, they just went into their father's study." Trisha said, smiling as she stood up.

"Oh, okay," Cayden smiled, then she looked up at her mother, "Can I go play?"

"Yes, dear." Alexandria smiled.

"Yay! Bye Mommy!" Cayden shouted as she ran past Trisha.

Alexandria smiled watching Cayden run down the hall and go up the stairs.

"Trisha, could I ask you for a favor?"

That was the last thing Cayden heard as she ran up the stairs.

"_Now what room was it again? Third room on the left?"_ Cayden thought to herself as she began to walk.

She walked down the hall, looking into each room. Hearing voices coming from the second to last room she quickened her pace. Standing at the doorway she saw that the boys had books and weird circles scattered everywhere.

"Ed? Al? What are you guys doing?" Cayden asked, walking in.

"Practicing Alchemy!" Ed said with a large grin on his face.

"What's Alchemy?" Cayden asked, sitting down beside him as Al stumbled over to her.

"It's an ancient metaphysical science art of manipulating and altering matter by using natural energy. Also known as "Transmutation". It consists of three types. Comprehension, Deconstruction, and Reconstruction. It requires a full understanding of chemistry and ancient alchemical theory, also natural talent towards recognizing and manipulating physical objects with energy, which require uncommon levels of intelligence and aptitude." Ed said, drawing another circle.

"How do you know all that?" Cayden asked, opening one of the few scattered books.

"Says so right here." Ed answered, pointing to some text in the book that lay beside him.

"Oh…" Cayden said, watching Ed make a small wooden horse.

Feeling something tug on her sleeve, Cayden glanced to the side seeing Alphonse.

"Hello Alphonse." Cayden smiled, patting him on the head.

"Hellwo Caydwn." Al said, smiling.

"You still can't talk right, can you?" Cayden teased, hugging him.

Al gave a small laugh as he hugged her back.

"Can you do that?" Caedyn asked, pointing over to the circles.

"Yesh." Al smiled, crawled over to the nearest circle, placing his hands on it he made a small stuffed bear.

Ed looked over the book he was reading and saw the bear, saying, "Hey, Al, could I see that for a second?"

"Sure, big bruda." Al said, handing the little bear over.

Cayden smiled at Al's attempt to say brother.

"Thanks Al." Ed said, placing it on the circle.

"Wait, what are you going to do to it, big bruda?" Al asked.

"You'll see." Ed smiled.

He placed his hands on the circle, causing it to glow blue and spark. A puff of smoke went up around it and the bear had a pink bow around its neck.

"There." He held up the bear then gave it back to Al, who then gave it to Cayden.

"Here, it's frwom bof of us." Al smiled, a slight blush on his cheeks.

"Thank you, Al." Cayden smiled, hugging him, making his cheeks a little redder.

Ed looked over at them, clenching his teeth together in jealously, but not saying a word as he continued to read his book again. Cayden saw the look on his face as he angrily flipped the pages. Cayden let go of Al and instantly hugged Edward.

"Thank you, Ed." She whispered in his ear.

"Yeah, no problem." He grumbled, blushing.

Cayden laughed, letting go of him.

"Could I try? At alchemy?" Cayden asked, giving Ed a pleading look.

"No, you're just a girl." Ed laughed.

"That's not far! I want to try it!" Cayden pouted, crossing her arms.

"There's no way you could understand any of this." Ed smirked.

"Just watch me! Tell me how to do it and I'll prove it to you!" Cayden said with a determined look on her face.

"Ugh, fine, but don't get mad at me if you can't do it." Ed sighed.

"Yay!" Cayden smiled.

"Put your hands here." Ed said, pointing to one of the circles.

"Okay." Cayden obeyed, placing her hands on the circle.

"This is called transmutation circle, now think of something and create it." Ed instructed, watching her.

Cayden nodded and closed her eyes, thinking of something. She eyes shot open as the transmutation circle started glowing blue.

"I'm doing it!" She shouted, excitedly.

The transmutation circle sparked up as a wooden dog appeared. Cayden smiled, picking up the dog and giving it to Edward.

"See, even a girl can do it." Cayden said, sticking out her tongue.

"Big deal, you were just lucky." Edward grumbled, picking up his book again.

Hearing footsteps coming down the hall, everyone looked towards the door to see Trisha.

"Cayden, sweetheart, could you come here for a minute?" Trisha asked, slightly frowning, which wasn't a normal sight.

"Uh…yeah." Cayden said, standing up and walking over to the door.

Edward and Alphonse stared up at their mother, worried looks on their faces.

"Please come out into the hall." Trisha said, stepping out.

"Yes ma'am." Cayden smiled, jumping over the books.

Trisha kneeled down, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Honey, you are going to be staying here for a while." Trisha whispered, looking at the ground.

"Why? Where are Mommy and Daddy?" Cayden asked, panic boiling up inside her.

"Mommy and Daddy are fine, they have been called to Central for work, they'll be back soon though, but for now you'll be staying here." Trisha said, managing a smile, "Now, go back and play with the boys, I'm going to be making supper soon."

"Oh…okay…" Cayden's sweet voice, drifted off.

"Don't worry." Trisha said, trying to cheer her up.

Cayden gave a weak smiled and threw herself into Trisha's arms, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"It'll be okay sweetheart…" Trisha whispered in her ear, hugging her, "Now go play, it will cheer you up."

"Okay…" Cayden said, sniffling and wiping away her tears.

Cayden walked back to the study, hand resting on the wall to guide her. As she walked back into the room, both boys looked up at her, eyes full of worry. Seeing her tears beginning to flow again they both got up, running over to her.

"What's wrong?" Both boys asked at the same time.

"N-Nothing." Cayden said giving them a weak smile.

"Okay." Al said with a smile, hugging her.

"Would you like to practice Alchemy again?" Ed asked, eyes hopeful.

"Sure." Cayden smiled, slightly tipping her head.

xXxXx

"Dinners ready!" Trisha shouted up the stairs.

"Yay food!" Al shouted, jumping up.

Ed smiled, giving his brother a high five. Edward got up as Al ran out of the study, running over to the door, Ed stopped, turning back to Cayden. Cayden stared at the floor, fists clenched. Edward walked over to her, reaching out a hand to her. Cayden looked up to see his smiling face, taking his hand, she stood up, smiling. Then he dragged her out of the study and down the stairs.

"It's beef stew tonight." Trisha said, smiling as she put out four bowls on the table.

Trisha carefully poured stew into the bowls. Cayden sat down in between Ed and Al, staring into the dark brown broth of the stew. Trisha placed a glass of milk in front of each of them before sitting down. Cayden picked up her spoon and started playing with the brown liquid.

"Edward drink your milk and Cayden please stop paying with your food." Trisha said, sweetly.

"I don't like milk! It's disgusting!" Ed fought, crossing his arms.

"If you don't drink you're milk, you'll stay short." Cayden teased as she began to eat her stew.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT THEY CAN BE CRUSHED LIKE AN ANT?!" Ed yelled, causing Cayden to laugh.

"Ed, don't yell at her." Trisha said, smiling at Cayden.

Ed mumbled something under his breath as he finished his stew. Alphonse leaned back in his chair, a hand on his stomach as he sighed. Cayden laughed at him and stood up, taking his and Ed's bowls, putting them onto of hers. Trisha took the bowls from Cayden and placed them in the sink.

"Time for bed you three, now go upstairs and get ready for bed." Trisha said smiling as always.

"Okay!" The three one them said at once as they ran off.

Cayden stayed outside the room as the boys got dressed. Trisha walked down the hall carrying a shirt.

"Here, it's gonna be big, but it should be fine enough to sleep in." Trisha said, handing Cayden the shirt.

"Thank you." Cayden smiled, hugging Trisha.

Cayden walked over to the bathroom and put on the shirt. She heard bickering and peeked out.

"I want her to sleep with me!" Ed yelled.

"No, she's gonna slweep wif me!" Al shouted, pouting.

"No, me!" Ed yelled back.

The two fought back and forth but instantly stopped as Cayden stepped out of the bathroom. Cayden smiled, taking both their hands.

"Why don't I sleep with both of you?" Cayden smiled, pulling them into the bedroom.

Cayden jumped on one of the bed, spinning before falling backwards. Sitting up she smiled at them. They stood there, eyes widened slightly, mouths open. Cayden laughed and the boys smiled back at her as they crawled in on both sides of her. Cayden took their hands in her and laid backwards, staring at the ceiling.

**(A/N: That was pretty boring wasn't it cx sorry I was brain dead and couldn't really think of anything)**

_**Two years later**_

"Give me the book!" Ed yelled, fighting Cayden for a thick leather book.

"I had it first!" Cayden yelled back.

"No you didn't! I did!"

"How could you get it? You're so short to reach up there!" Cayden teased, sticking out her tongue.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THEY ARE CONSIDERED A MIDGET!?" Ed yelled at her.

Trisha walked up to the doorway, tears rushing down her face, clutching an open letter in her hands. Alphonse ran over to Trisha, hugging her leg.

"Mommy, wants wrong?" Al looked up, eyes bright with wonder and concern.

"Don't worry about it Al." Trisha said, ruffling his hair.

Ed and Cayden quickly looked over to Trisha, both worried.

"Cayden, could you give Ed the book and come with me." Trisha said, looking at the floor.

Cayden let go of the book and slowly walked over to Trisha. Trisha grabbed her hand and brought her into the hallway. Ed ran over to the doorway and peeked out, listening to what was going on. Al pulled on his brother's sleeve.

"Hold on Al, something's wrong." Ed whispered quietly, listening.

Trisha looked Cayden in the eyes.

"Cayden, Honey, something bad has happened." Trisha said, looking away.

"What…?" Cayden's voice drifted off.

"Your Mommy and Daddy, they're…they're gone…" Trisha whispered, more tears rolling down her face.

"On a trip?" Cayden asked, eyes wide.

"No, sweetheart, Mommy and Daddy…Mommy and Daddy are dead…" Trisha voice drifted off in a whisper.

"Are they going to come back?" Cayden asked, tears forming in her eyes.

"No, sweetheart, they won't be." Trisha whispered, kneeling down.

"W-why?" Cayden asked, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"It's hard to explain, you'll understand when you're older."

"Oh…okay…" Cayden mumbled, sniffling.

Trisha pulled Cayden into a hug.

"It's gonna be okay, sweetheart." Trisha whispered in her ear.

Ed let out a small gasp and grabbed Al's hand, running over to Trisha and Cayden, hugging both of them.

xXxXx

It was raining the day the military brought Cayden's parents bodies back. Winry had lost her parents the year before so she knew what her best friend was going through. Winry held Cayden's hand as they looked over the graves. The ceremony was over and almost everyone had left. Trisha had left to go make lunch and the boys ran off saying they needed to do something important. Cayden was a little upset that the boys had left her there, but was glad that Winry had stayed.

"Any idea on what the boys are doing?" Winry asked, glancing over at Cayden.

"No…" Cayden whispered.

"Are you hungry?" Winry asked, concern that Cayden hasn't eaten anything all day.

"No…" Cayden whispered, once more.

"Cayden, you have to eat something." Winry said, squeezing her hand.

"No…" Cayden whispered.

"For me?"

"No…"

"Look here come Ed and Al." Winry said, pointing over at them.

Cayden looked, eyes still on the ground.

"We're back!" Ed said, smiling widely.

Cayden let out a squeak, slowly lifting her eyes to look at him.

"Mom told us to bring this to you." Ed held out a pot of tomato soup, "She's worried about you since you're not eating."

Winry took to pot from Edward and pushed him closer to Cayden. Seeing he blushed but didn't take the hint she pushed him into Cayden, making him hug her.

"Ed you're so stupid." Winry sighed, smiling.

"Am not!" Ed yelled at Winry.

Alphonse walked over to Cayden, taking her hand, "Cayden…?"

Cayden looked down at Alphonse, squeaking again.

"Are you going to stay with us some more? I don't want you to leave." He whispered, meeting her eyes.

"Me neither." Ed whispered, looking away as he blushed.

Cayden smiled at both of them, pulling them into a hug, whispering in their ears, "Of course I'm staying."

xXxXx

**(A/N: Skipping Trisha's funeral and the part where they try to bring her back :3)**

_**5 years later**_

Cayden sat by herself, huddled in the corner of Winry's house. She had tears running down her cheeks. It was her fault. Her fault she didn't stop them. Her fault they were stuck like that. She blamed herself for it. If she would have talked them out of it, Ed would still have his arm and leg and Al would still have his body. She barely looked up as Granny Pinako rolled Edward out into the kitchen. She had been working for a while with fixing up his arm and leg.

Then there was a knock on the door. Granny Pinako sighed and walked over to open it. Outside stood a soldier with short black hair and piercing black eyes, he pushed his way past Granny Pinako, followed by a young woman with blonde hair.

"Sorry for the intrusion, Mrs. Rockbell." He said, not meeting her eyes as he looked around the house, spotting Cayden in the corner, a suit of armor staring at him from the couch, and a little blonde boy in a wheelchair.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Pinako demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

"My apologies, we heard that the Elric Brothers should be here." The young blonde woman said.

The black haired man walked over to Edward, picking him up out of the wheelchair by the collar, yelling in his face, "We saw that…that thing in your house! What was it?! What did you make?!"

Edward stayed silent as he looked down, shadow falling across his face.

That set Cayden over the edge. She stood up quickly, clenching her fists as she walked over to Edward and the black haired man.

"Put him down." She growled through her teeth, head down.

The black haired man, glanced over at hair, a small smirk forming on his face.

"I SAID PUT HIM DOWN!" Cayden yelled, looking up, her bangs flying out of her face, tears then started to fall from her eyes, "Please don't hurt him. We're sorry! We didn't…we didn't mean to…so just…put him down…"

Alphonse walked over, putting a hand on Cayden's shoulder and his other on the man's arm.

"We're sorry. Please forgive us…we're sorry…we're sorry." Alphonse whispered, shaking slightly, pushing the man's hand down to make him let go of Edward.

xXxXx

Granny Pinako was in the living room with the man that had introduced himself as Roy Mustang and the young woman that had introduced herself as Riza Hawkeye. Edward, Alphonse, and Cayden were in the dining room, listening to everything. Cayden was holding Ed's hand, tightly as he stared off into space.

"I heard there was a brilliant alchemist here, so I decided to come and see for myself, but I never thought it would be a couple of kids. A couple of kids that managed to do human transmutation never the less," Mustang said, looking over at Cayden and Edward, "Or even bond a soul to a suit of armor. I'd say the two of them are more than qualified to become State Alchemists. And once they become State Alchemists, they will serve as a soldier in an event of an emergency, but will receive special privileges, and research of the highest level will become possible for them. They may even find a way to get their bodied back, or-" Pinako cut him off.

"After they came in here, covered in blood, I went over to that house. That thing…that thing in there was not human! Is alchemy what created that monster?! I will not allow this! I will not let you put these children through hell again!"

"Mrs. Rockbell, I'm not going to force them, I'm just offering the possibility." He looked over at Ed and Cayden, "Whether to move forward, or whether to stay still. Will you end your days in despair, or will you seek the possibilities, and bow to the military? If the possibility is there, you should move forward, in order to get your bodies back. Even of the way is ahead is through a river of mud."

"You called him a suit of armor, didn't you." Cayden clenched her teeth together, she had stayed quiet long enough, it bugged her that he called Alphonse a suit of armor.

"Hmm…?" Mustang looked Cayden in the eyes.

"Don't call him that…" Cayden growled through her teeth.

Everyone in the room had their eyes on Cayden.

"He has a name! Don't call him a suit of armor!" Cayden yelled at Mustang.

Mustang gave a small smirk, "My apologies."

"Damn right, you bastard!" Cayden snarled.

"Watch it girl, you have no idea who you're talking to." Mustang growled at her.

"And who would that be?!" Cayden shot back.

"I'm Colonel Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist." Mustang growled.

"Ooooh, everyone it's Roy Mustang! The Flame Alchemist!" She put her hand on her forehead, being dramatic, "Why don't you shut up with a glass of water, Fireboy!"

Cayden grabbed her cup of water that rested on the table and threw it at him.

Mustang got out of his chair and walked over to Cayden. He grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and got in her face.

"You'd better not do that again." He growled.

"Oh, but Colonel, you wouldn't hurt a little girl, would you?" Cayden laughed, acting innocent.

Colonel Mustang muttered something under his breath, dropping Cayden.

"Think about what I said, if you want to get your bodies back, you might consider becoming a State Alchemist." He said, turning around, "Let's go Hawkeye."

xXxXx

Cayden sat in the surgery room at Winry's house. Edward decided he was going to get auto-mail for his arm and leg.

"Sure you won't regret this?" Granny Pinako asked.

"Mm-hmm, I've already made up my mind. How long will the surgery and rehabilitation take?" Edward asked Granny Pinako.

"About three years." Pinako answered him.

Edward closed his eyes for a moment and opened them again, a determined look in it.

"One year!" he declared. "I'll do it in one year."

"You're gonna be spitting blood." Pinako warned him.

Edward just nodded, the determined look in his eyes unwaverin . He turned to his younger brother and Cayden, smiling.

"Al, hang in there for a little while longer. I'm going to get you your body back." he promised.

"Mm-hmm, and when that happens, Brother, your body will be with it." Al said.

Cayden smiled, leaning forward, giving Edward a hug.

"Be careful, don't push yourself too hard." Cayden whispered in his ear, "We'll both get your bodies back. Soon."

Edward nodded as he returned the hug, smiling and blushing like an idiot.

xXxXx

A year had passed since Ed got his auto-mail and now he was fighting Al in the front yard. He had done it, he rehabilitated in one year, just like he said he would.

"Looks like you're in perfect shape, Brother. Your body's all fixed up now, don't you think?" Al said.

"Yeah! Just alchemy left to train now. Since I haven't used it since." said Ed.

"You haven't used it since you affixed Al's soul." Cayden commented, walking down the front steps of the porch.

Ed took a deep breath and clapped his hands, turning his now auto-mail arm into a sword.

"Brother!" Al shouted, excited

"Perfect, perfect." Ed said, grinning wickedly.

"That's amazing, Brother! You did it without a transmutation circle!" Al said.

"Just like how our teacher does it!" Cayden exclaimed, running out to them.

"… You can do it, too, can't you?" Ed asked.

"No, Brother." answered Al.

"You didn't see it…?"

"See... What?" Al asked, puzzled.

"Um, nothing…never mind. What about you, Cayden?" he asked you, "Can you do it? Did you see it, too?"

Cayden stared at Ed, trying to understand what he meant. She clenched her fists together looking away. Realizing they were staring at her, she smiled.

" Let me try." Cayden clapped her hands together and placed on Ed's auto-mail. It returned back to an arm, "Huh, Looks like I can."

"So you saw it." Ed said, staring her in the eyes.

"... Yeah." She replied, just as a wrench flew towards them.

Cayden ducked quickly, resulting into Ed getting hit with it.

"Hey! You used alchemy on your auto-mail, didn't you?!" Winry yelled at Ed, who was clutching his head in pain.

"Ow... geez..." Ed complained, rubbing his head, "Uncute machine freak." He muttered, loud enough for Winry to hear.

"Like I care if I'm not cute! I'm fine with being a machine freak, too!" Winry yelled, "I've decided to support you until you get your limbs back!"

"Wha?" The expression on Ed's face made Cayden laugh.

"Hey, Winry, there's a favor I want to ask of you." Cayden said to her.

"Hm? What is it?" she asked.

"I was wondering if you could make an auto-mail covering for my hand, sorta like a glove." Cayden asked, holding out her hand. **(A/N: Just decided this so she will have the covering for the rest of this :3)**

"What for?" she questioned.

"I could use it on the journey to fix them." Cayden smiled, pointing back at the boys.

"Oh. Okay then. But you'll have to wait for a while." Winry told her, "I'll have to do a lot of measurements."

"Do you think you could get it done by today?" Cayden asked.

"But aren't you supposed to take the State Alchemist Exam today? Weren't you planning to leave soon?" Winry asked.

"Looks like I won't be taking it." Cayden smiled, nervously as she scratched the back of her head, "Maybe next time."

Cayden turned to Edward, teasing him, "Think you can handle it without me?"

"Of course I can!"

xXxXx

Cayden sat outside with Winry, staring out into the distance while Winry focused on putting the pieces on her hand. Wind whipping her hair around. Her hair had grown exceptionally long, about down her waist. Al sat on the steps, staring into the distance also.

"I wonder if Brother is doing all right on the exams..." Al said, breaking the silence between them.

"I just hope he doesn't do anything recklessly stupid that makes him mess up his exam." Cayden muttered.

"Cayden?" Winry said, meeting her eyes.

"Hm? What?" Cayden asked her.

"... If Ed becomes a State Alchemist... will you be leaving this town?" Winry asked, looking down at the table.

"Yes." Cayden said, giving her a weak smile.

xXxXx

Cayden stared into the red flames engulfing their house. Ed had become a State Alchemist and it was time to move on and begin their journey. Cayden sighed, pulling her hood over her head.

"There is no turning back." Ed said has he threw the torch into the flames.

"Yup." said Al.

Cayden turned around, noticing Winry was crying.

"Why are you crying?" Ed asked her.

"I…I…" Winry sniffled.

"Please, don't cry, Winry." Cayden said, giving her a hug.

"You're helpless." Ed said to the crying girl. "Your crying hasn't changed at all, Winry."

"Ed, be nice." Cayden grumbled, letting go of Winry and sticking her tongue out at him.

**(A/N: Okay here it is :3 not that good really but that's fine I guess. Favorite and Review for more and Thank You to anyone that has!)**


	6. Chapter 5

**(A/N: I was fighting myself for a while on deciding if I wanted to do the Youswell Coal Mines and the upcoming train problem, now enjoy and remember to favorite and review for more ^-^)**

Cayden hummed to herself as she looked out the window of the train, watching everything pass by.

"So where are we going now?" Cayden asked, looking over to Ed.

"We are supposed to be going to East City, but the Youswell Coal Mines are on the way and I thought we could maybe find a place to stay the night and get the next train to East City in the morning." Ed smiled at her.

"Hmm…" Cayden muttered, crossing her arms, looking around the train, "Wow, guess this place doesn't get many tourists."

"Guess not…" Ed said, looking around.

"Guess everyone heard Ed was on it." Alphonse teased.

"And what's that supposed to mean?!" Ed shouted at his little brother.

Cayden laughed, "That's probably it, anyway why do we have to stay at a coal mine?" Hoping to change the subject, "I don't like coal mines."

"Aw, is wittle Cayden scared of a coal mine?" Edward teased in a baby voice, poking her in the stomach.

"Scared of a coal mine? No, I just don't like them." Cayden growled, glaring at him.

"Are you scared of getting dirty?" Ed continued to tease her.

Cayden punched Ed in the arm, "Shut up!"

"Don't worry about it, we'll protect you from the evil dust and dirt." Al laughed.

"I'll take the dirt and fill you with it, Alphonse!" Cayden shot at him, laughing.

"No! I don't allow dirt inside my armor, only cats!" Alphonse said, holding onto his chest plate.

The trio busted out laughing as the train came to a stop.

"Already here?" Cayden asked, looking out the window.

"Guess so." Ed said, standing up, putting his hands behind his head.

xXxXx

"Well this place is dead…" Cayden grumbled, kicking a rock.

The place wasn't exactly deserted, people were here, but they did everything slowly or did absolutely nothing at all.

"Everyone seems a little tired..." Alphonse remarked, putting a hand on the back of his head.

Cayden turned just in time to see Edward get hit it the head with a wooden pole.

"Oops! Sorry 'bout that." a voice apologized.

"You alright, Ed?" Cayden asked, holding a hand out to him.

"Yeah." he groaned, rubbing his head. Edward looked up at the boy, glaring. "That hurt, you little-"

"Hey! You're from out of town, right?" the boy cut in. "On a trip?" he asked, leaning closer to Edward.

"Uh..."

"Where you from?" The boy bombarded Edward with questions while Cayden and Alphonse stood back a bit, watching, as a small smile appeared on Cayden's face.

"Well..."

"Need a meal?"

"Hold on..."

"A place to stay?"

"Who are you?" Edward asked, getting annoyed with the young boy.

Edward took Cayden's hand, standing up as the boy yelled up to a man, carrying a pole over his shoulder, "Dad! We got customers!"

"LISTEN WHEN PEOPLE TALK TO YOU!" Edward shouted at him.

"Huh? What's that, Khayal?" the man asked.

"Customers!" Khayal hollered, waving his hand "A piggy bank!"

Cayden looked over to Al, growling as she raised her fists, "Piggy Bank? I'll show him a piggy bank."

"What do you mean 'piggy bank'?!" Edward demanded, looking back to Al and Cayden for support.

"You don't say!" the man said, taking off his hat and showing you his grinning face.

xXxXx

"Sorry about the dust." Halling, the innkeeper said to the three of them. "The mines don't pay very much. So we run this inn to get by."

"What're you talkin' 'bout, chief!? Your problem is, you're a soft touch! Always giving what you make to the poor!" A man with a scruffy beard laughed.

"That's why your old lady's always crying!" another man added, laughing along.

"Keep it down, you!" Halling shouted, but not really angry at the group of men, "If you got a problem with how I spend my money, then hurry up and pay me what you owe for the booze!" More laughter erupted from the group of men.

"So there's three of you... One night's stay and three meals each?" Halling's wife asked.

"How much?" asked Edward.

"What...afraid you can't afford it?" Halling said with a smirk.

"Don't worry, I brought enough." Edward told him confidently.

"Three-hundred thousand." Halling said, holding up three fingers.

Edward fell out of his chair from shock while Cayden stared at the man in disbelief.

"Three-hundred thousand?!" Edward yells. "What a rip off!"

"I said you might not be able to afford it." Halling told him, "We don't get too many tourists, so when they come we try to make sure they leave all their money."

"You gotta be kidding me! We'll go somewhere else!" Edward stood up to leave but the innkeeper clutched his head, stopping him.

"There's no escape, piggy bank!" Halling hissed.

"Forget about it. The prices are the same everywhere else." Khayal added with smile.

Cayden took out the rest of the money she had left in her bag, holding it up as Ed took out his wallet.

"We really don't have enough..." he muttered, "I guess the only thing we can do is use alchemy to turn pebbles into gold!"

"You know it's forbidden by the State Alchemy laws to make gold!" Cayden growled, hitting him in the back of the head.

"If we don't get caught... we won't get caught." Edward grinned at his plan.

"Brother, you're evil!" Alphonse whispered.

Cayden sighed, looking around, jumping when she saw Khayal in her face.

"DAD! THIS GUY'S AN ALCHEMIST!" Khayal shouted to his father.

"Oh great, here we go…" Cayden sighed, putting her head in her hands

xXxXx

Edward clapped his hands and placed it on the table where a broken pickaxe lay. People gathered around to watch, Khayal being right up at the front. Sparks flew, blue light emitting from underneath Edward's hands as his transmutation activated. When the transmutation ended, there lay the pickaxe, good as new. The crowd of man stared at the pickaxe, oohing and aahing. Edward struck a victory pose on the table, a fan open in his hand. Cayden sighed, putting her face into her hand.

"It looks brand new!" a miner commented, holding the pickaxe in the air while examining it.

"Are there any other things you want fixed?" asked Edward, looking around the crowd.

"Can you fix this please?" The hostess walked up to the table, a broken vase in her hands, "I treasure it, but I accidentally broke it." she explained.

"What, you haven't thrown it away yet?" said Halling.

"You rarely buy things like this for me, so..." replied the hostess as she set the broken vase on the table.

"Here, let me." Cayden smiled, stepping in before Edward could start.

Cayden clapped her hands and placed it over the vase, creating a flash of blue light and some sparks. When it faded, it revealed the vase back to its original shape, intact.

"I'm so glad!" the hostess cried joyfully, picking up the vase and hugging it.

"That's great, Hostess!" a man called out to the lady.

"This is great! Our first customers in ages, and they're alchemists!" Halling laughed as he walked up to them with a plate of food that Edward ordered, "I used to dabble a little bit myself, but I didn't really have the talent, so I gave up studying." He grinned at the three of you. "I'll give you a special alchemist's discount. Plus the amount I owe you for fixing the vase and pickaxe."

"Sounds good!" Edward said happily.

"Thank you very much, sir." Cayden smiled up at him.

"All together, that's a 50% discount! One hundred-fifty thousand!"

"That's still a lot!" protested Edward as the plate of food was placed in front of him, making Halling laugh at his outrage.

"By the way, I didn't catch your name." Halling mused, placing a hand on his chin.

Edward picked up his silver wares, ready to dig into his food, "Oh yeah...?" Edward queried. "Edward Elric." he told the man.

Just as he was about to start eating, Halling swiped the plate away from him, making him stab the table with the fork and knife. The three of them looked up at Halling and gave him a quizzical look, but the man was still smiling at the three like everything was perfectly fine.

"So you're Elric the alchemist..." Halling said, the friendly smile still on his face, "The State Alchemist?" he asked.

"... Well, sort of..." Edward replied, reaching for his cup of coffee.

Halling took that away as well, swiping it away from him before he could even grab it.

"Hey, what's the big deal?!" Edward demanded.

The pub instantly got quiet, all the miners staring at the three of them, eyes narrowed.

"GET LOST!" they yelled as they kicked the three of them out of the inn. "Hey! We're paying customers!" Edward argues, on his hands and knees.

"Bleah! We don't have food or lodgings for dogs of the military!" Halling spat at him.

"Um, we're civilians! We're not 'state' anything!" Cayden and Alphonse called out innocently, hands raised in the air.

"Oh, that's fine then! Come on in!" Halling said back to his cheerfulness, beckoning them to come in.

"YOU TRAITORS!" Edward yelled at the two of them as they went inside.

"Man, just when I thought we had a paying guest..." a miner muttered bitterly as you and all the other miners went back to their seats.

"What a letdown..." Cayden took a seat next to Alphonse at a table, Khayal seated right next to her.

"State Alchemists aren't too popular here, are they?" questioned Alphonse

"Of course. Everyone around here hates soldiers." Khayal informed them, "This town's under the authority of Lieutenant Yoki, but all he cares about is making money."

"I hear he spends it all on bribes to his superiors back in Central City." a man with a cigarette in his mouth said.

"He even bought his way to being a Lieutenant." a man added.

"Used to be he just owned the coal mines, but he got greedy about movin' on up." an elderly looking man said, lighting up his pipe.

"Huh? So this place is..." Alphonse's voice drifted off.

"Yup, this is Yoki's private property."

"That rat owns everything in this town! We don't get paid enough to get by!" a different man shouted in outrage, "Even if we complain to someone higher up on the chain, Yoki bribes them all, so they won't help!"

"See? It sucks, huh?" Khayal huffed as he jerked his thumb at what the man said.

"And then there's the State Alchemists." said Halling as he set two trays of food down in front of you and Alphonse. The trays each had of a mug of coffee and a sandwich, "'Alchemists work for the people.'" Halling continued, "That's the slogan of the alchemists... The source of their pride. I know they get a lot in exchange... But I can't forgive people who sell their souls to the military state."

Cayden stared at the sandwich for a while before picking it up and taking a couple bites.

xXxXx

Edward laid on the porch of the inn, stomach growling.

"I'm hungry..." Edward complained, his stomach rumbling again. "Damn you, Al... Damn you, Cayden… Have you both lost your humanity?!"

"Now who are you saying that they lost their humanity? Especially after we got some food for you!"

Edward whipped around to see Cayden, hand on her hip, cup of coffee in hand, hood over her face, and Alphonse with a tray of food. Alphonse knelt down next his brother and handed the tray to him.

"I snuck out with the food they gave me." Alphonse explained.

"Dear brother!" Edward cried as he tackled Alphonse into a hug, tears of gratitude pouring down from his eyes.

"Sheesh, you're so predictable." Alphonse sighed.

"Call yourself lucky that your brother got you some food after they kicked you out." Cayden smiled, "Turns out everybody here hates the soldiers because this town is under the authority of Lieutenant Yoki. He lowered the miners' salaries while raising their taxes. And while at that, he uses the money to bribe the higher ups in the military."

"Hmm... These corrupt official types are everywhere, huh?" Edward muttered after hearing her explanation, picking up his food.

"No kidding."

"I guess, thanks to this guy, they don't even get enough food supplies." said Alphonse.

"... I see." Edward mused, staring at the sandwich he was about to take a bite out of, "That Lieutenant Yoki's causing us a lot of trouble. I mean, military personnel like us aren't very popular to begin with. When I became State Alchemist I knew I'd get a certain amount of flack... But I never knew they would hate me so much."

"I'm going to go back inside. Maybe get some more information from the miners." Cayden smiled standing up.

"Oh…okay…" Ed sighed, slight disappointment in his voice.

Cayden stood by the door, mouth open a little, shocked at his tone.

"Hey, you! Out of the way! We're coming in!" someone yelled at her.

"Ah! Sorry!" Cayden quickly moved out of the way and went to stand beside Khayal, making way for three blue-uniformed men. Two burly looking men were following a skinny black haired man in the middle who had a handkerchief to his mouth.

"That must be Yoki…" Cayden whispered to herself.

"Place looks filthy as usual, Halling." Yoki commented.

"It's you, First Lieutenant. Welcome to this filthy place." Halling just says to him nonchalantly, "What brings you to a shabby place like this?"

"Nice greeting." Yoki sarcastically replied.

He put down his handkerchief and pointed at Halling."I hear you're late on your taxes. I know you're not the only deadbeat in this town, but don't expect me to ignore you." he informed Halling in his pompous tone.

"I'm very sorry, but we're barely getting by as it is..." Halling says right back.

Yoki looked around the inn, turning his head left and right, his eyes landing on the bottles of liquor that were on the tables, mumbling, "Hmph, and yet, there is more than enough to enjoy alcohol...I guess that means I can lower your salary a bit more?"

His statement caused an uproar around the room.

"Wha-!?"

"Why you...!" Khayal snarled, grabbing a dirty rag nearby and preparing to throw it him.

Cayden put herself in front of him, shaking her head and clenching her fists.

"Look here, you little bastard! Just what kind of person are you to lower their salaries when they clearly don't have enough to even get by!? And even worse, you raise their taxes so you could use it for your own good! Using it for bribery! And now you're planning to lower their salaries even further!" Cayden yelled, "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO DO THAT!"

That got Cayden rewarded with a slap across her face. Everyone in the room got silent. Cayden slowly turned her head to look at Yoki, glaring at him.

"I will not hold back just because you're a girl." Yoki said, snapping his fingers, motioning to one of his officers to draw his weapon.

"Let this be a warning to everyone!" Yoki said as the man swung his sword at her.

Cayden closed her eyes, waiting for impact, but none came. Cayden opened one eye and saw Edward standing in front of her, blocking the sword with his auto-mail arm, breaking the sword in half.

"What?! It broke...?!" the officer exclaims, shocked.

"Wh... Where did this kid come from!?" Yoki yells as Alphonse walked into the scene, startling the other officer.

"Just a kid passing through." Edward simply answers, taking a sip from his cup of coffee.

"This is none of your business! Stay out!" Yoki continued to yell, annoyed.

"Well, I heard the Lieutenant was gonna be here..." Edward reached into his pocket and took out his pocket watch, showing it to Yoki with a grin. "... So I decided to say hello."

"... Eh? What's this?" Yoki questions as he leaned down to inspect the watch.

"Lieutenant, who is this brat...?" his lackey asks him, pointing to Edward.

"You idiot!" Yoki yelled at him, "Don't you know what a State Alchemist is? They work directly for the President!"

"You're serious? Not that little runt!?" Edward's eyebrow twitched at the word 'runt'.

"This is my chance..." Yoki said.

"Huh?" Yoki's lackey questions.

"If I make an impression here, I might be able to make some connections at Central!"

"Wow, you're really on top of things, Lieutenant!" Yoki slithered his way over to Edward, rubbing his hands together and a sly little smile on his face.

"I'm sorry if my subordinates were impolite." Yoki said to him, "My name is Yoki, and I'm in charge of this town."

"It must be fate that we meet here!" Yoki continues. "There's no need for you to stay in this pig-pen! Even though we're far from the city, we have some lovely rooms back at my house!"

"Dirty and evil." Khayal muttered.

Cayden smiled, giving him a high five.

"Well, I guess that would be all right..." said Edward, smiling kindly, "...Because the owner here is too cheap to let me stay."

Cayden smiled slightly seeing Halling's face, but looked back to Ed.

He whispered to Cayden and Al, "Both of you stay here."

He walked out of the inn, smiling at both of them, the officers following him. Yoki turned around and pointed a finger, sweeping it across the room and landing on everyone.

"Listen here, you lowlifes." Yoki shouted, "I'm going to make you pay every penny of the taxes you owe me! I'll be back!" With that declaration, he slammed the door close behind him.

"AAGGGH! That makes me so MAD!" Khayal screamed, throwing his head back.

Cayden nodded in agreement and noticed Halling was smiling at her.

"Hey, kid, thanks for what you did there, but you didn't have to do that." Halling told her.

"No, that guy pissed me off. All the things I yelled into his face were the truth." Cayden replied, smiling, "And besides, he shouldn't have been treating you guys like that. You deserve better than him."

xXxXx

Cayden looked at the burnt remains of the inn. Everything had been burnt to a crisp. Cayden helped with what she could, using her alchemy to get water to put out the fire.

"How awful..." someone muttered amongst the crowd.

Halling's wife was kneeled onto the ground in front of the remains, hugging the slightly burnt signpost of the inn as she wept, her husband kneeling next to her and embracing her.

"Last night I saw some of Yoki's underlings hanging out around the inn..."

"Damn it... What a dirty thing to do..."

"...The reason dad tried to learn alchemy was because he wanted to save this town." Khayal told Cayden.

The young boy was sitting on the ground, his clothes having smudges of soot here and there, a depressed look on his face. Khayal looked up at Edward, who had his hands in his pockets, "Hey, Ed. You're good enough to create gold, right?"

Edward just glanced towards Khayal with an expressionless face.

"Can't you just whip up some gold to help my dad...and this town...!?" Khayal reasoned, but Edward just slowly closes his eyes shut as he listens.

"No." he finally answered coldly.

"Come on..." Khayal begged. "It's not like it's gonna cost you anything!"

"The foundation of alchemy is 'equivalent exchange.'" he said in the same cold voice, "Why should I give you free money?"

"Why you..." Khayal growled, grabbing the front of Edward's trademark coat, "YOU SCUMBAG! YOU CALL YOURSELF AN ALCHEMIST?!" Khayal yelled angrily at Edward, who didn't even give a sign of any emotion. Khayal glared at Edward, eyes narrowed.

"'Alchemist work for the people'... Right?"

Edward yanked his coat free from Khayal's grip, "If I gave you money now, it'd just end up as taxes in Yoki's vault. I don't feel like being used by all of you just to get by."

"If you're that desperate, then leave town and find another job." Edward continued, fixing his coat back in place as he turned his back.

"Kid, you don't get it." Halling said.

Edward glanced over his shoulder to see the miners' leaving, Halling's hand on top of his crying son's head.

"...The mines are our homes... And our graves."

Edward shoved his hands in his pockets and looked up at the sky.

"Hey, big brother! Hold on!" Alphonse called out to Edward. "Are you really going to abandon those people...?"

"Al," Edward cut his brother off, stopping in front of a cart. "How much culm do you think is here?" (Culm = Waste from coal mines, including fine coal, coal dust, and dirt)

"Huh? One ton... Maybe two tons?"

Edward nodded at his younger brother's answer. He then heaved himself onto the mine cart and stood atop of all the culm.

"Okay. I'm gonna do something slightly illegal now so just look the other way for a second." He said, smiling wickedly

"Huh!?" Alphonse exclaimed. "...You want me to be an accomplice?"

"What you won't?" Edward questioned as he clapped his hands.

"You're gonna do it even if I say no, right?" Kneeling down, Edward slammed his hands on to the piles of rock, creating a flash of light and blue sparks. He slowly stood up as gold bars were being transformed from the rocks.

"Aaah... If we don't get caught, we won't get caught." said Edward.

"Wow, Ed, such a great influence on Alphonse aren't you?" Cayden laughed, grabbing his ankle, pulling him off the cart.

xXxXx

"...Uh..."

Yoki stared disbelieving at the several pyramids of gold bars in front of him, mouth wide open while two of his subordinates, who were standing on either side of him, had the same expression on their faces. Edward stood with his arms crossed as he smirked confidently at the Lieutenant.

"Now... I'd like you to sell me all the rights to the coal mines." Edward said.

"Wow..." One of Yoki's lackeys breathed, inspecting the gold bars.

"Is this real gold?"

Edward rested a hand on his chin, "Not enough?" he asked, tilting his head a little to the side.

"P-p-please don't be absurd!" Yoki stuttered, putting his hands up while shaking his head, "With this much gold I can say goodbye to this miserable post...!" Yoki glanced over at Edward. "And also...um... If you don't mind..."

"Oh yes! Of course I'll put in a good word to my superiors." he said to him.

"Oh, thank you, thank you! My dear alchemist!" Yoki said happily, gripping Edward's hand as the young man laughed.

"But making gold is illegal, so... in order to not get caught, I would appreciate it if you would write a document saying, 'The rights were peacefully transferred, free of charge'..." Edward explained.

"Oh, I wouldn't mind at all! Well then, let's do the paperwork right away!" Yoki said, putting a hand over his mouth, "My, you really are a sly one, Mr. Alchemist, sir!"

"No, no, not compared to you, Lieutenant." said Edward, laughing inwardly as well with a fan over his mouth.

"What the hell is going on?" Cayden asked, horrified at the scene being played out before her.

"I don't know, just let them enjoy themselves." Al said, staring at the two.

xXxXx

"Why NOT, dad!?" Khayals yelled, slamming his fist on top of a barrel. "Why can't we do it?!"

"Because I said so," Halling simply answered, "I won't allow a raid."

"Even if you're against it, Chief. I'm still going." One miner said as he picked up his pickaxe.

"Yeah, I've had enough." Another miner voiced in, crossing his arms.

"Even if we fail, I'm gonna punch that rotten Yoki in the face at least once!" There were murmur of agreements and a few nods of heads.

"No! I can't allow all of you to become criminals!" Halling growled.

"But...!" Khayal was about to protest, but just then, the slam of the door opening cut him off.

All eyes turned towards the door and saw Cayden, Edward, and Alphonse at the entrance.

"Hi everybody! What a lot of gloomy faces! You're looking cheerful today!" Edward cheered loudly, raising his left hand in the air as he strolled inside, Cayden and Alphonse following him. Everybody in the shed responded with a look of annoyance and distaste at the three.

"...What are you doing here?" Khayal snapped. Edward wagged a finger at him.

"Hey hey. Should you be speaking that to the new superior of this joint?" he replied with a grin.

"What the hell are y-" someone was about to yell at him, but Edward shoved some papers in his face. Pointing, the man asked, "What's this...?"

"Ownership papers," Edward explained. "They confer on the holder the rights to mining, sales, distribution and all subsidiary business in this town." he listed off.

"How did you get this...?" the miner grabbed the paper to get a closer look at it. "HEYY! And it says it's been signed over to Edward Elric!?"

"WHAT!?" Halling and his son yelled, faces full of shock.

"Correct! So from this moment on..." Edward spread his arms wide, "...THIS COAL MINE BELONGS TO ME!" he declared. All the miners' jaws dropped to ground and their expressions screamed 'NO WAY!'.

"Believe it. But we're just a couple of vagabonds going from place to place." Edward continued.

"These documents will just be in the way... so..." Alphonse added in with a sigh.

"If only someone could take these off of our hands." Cayden joined in, placing a hand on her forehead. Halling narrowed his eyes in suspicion as he frowned at the three.

"You want to sell it to us?" he cautiously questioned as a bead of sweat traveled down his forehead. "How much?"

"What...afraid you can't afford it?" Edward smirked, "If you want something, you have to pay the price. After all, this deed is printed on high quality goatskin parchment, stamped with a gold seal. Not only that, but in spectacular feat of craftsmanship, the deposit box is inlaid with powdered jade. Hmm...this is the work of a true artist. And hey! The key is made of real silver!" he finished his observation.

"Well, this is just a layman's opinion...but taking all this into account..." Edward paused as he looked up at Halling with a little smile, "...How about the price of one night's stay and three meals for three at your place? Would that be fair, Chief?"

"Oh... The equivalent exchange..." Khayal murmured, understanding dawning on him.

"Haha..." Halling slapped his hand onto his face, his shoulders shaking as he laughed at the fact that the kid got him there. "Ha ha ha ha! You're right, that is expensive!" Halling banged his fist on top of the barrel. "I'LL BUY IT!" he announced. Edward grinned and slapped the deed on top of the barrel.

"SOLD!"

Just then, Lieutenant Yoki decided to make his entrance a he slammed the door open, a look of panic on his face.

"Mr. Alchemist, sir, what is the meaning of this!?" Yoki demanded as he pushed his way into the building, his two subordinates following in after him.

"Well, well, Lieutenant. I just sold the deed to the mine to the chief here." said Edward while gesturing to Halling.

"WHAAAT!? Yoki screeched, jaw dropping. But he soon regained his composure, somewhat. "No, but that's not what I'm here for!"

"The gold bars you gave me have all turned to rock! Can you please explain that!?" Yoki demanded, pointing a shaking fingers at the small pile of rocks in his hand.

Cayden shot Edward a quizzical look, smirking as she leaned forward, she asked in a whisper, "...When did you change it back?"

"Right before I left." Edward whispered back, grinning like a madman. He turned back to Yoki, putting on a innocent look on his face. "I don't know anything about any 'gold bars.' " Edward chirped, not that convincingly.

"Please don't act dumb! We exchanged the pile of gold for the ownership documents! This is fraud!" Yoki yelled in outrage.

"Huh? The deed was given to me free of charge." Edward got out the paper and showed it to Yoki with an innocent smile. "See, you signed it! It says so right here."

"WHAT!? This deal is null and void!" Yoki turned to his two men. He pointed a finger at Edward, his whole body shaking. "You two! Take those document from them! Now! Huh?" He stopped his order as a miner loomed over him, evil smiles on their faces.

"It's not right to try and take someone's property by force." the miner said, still smiling.

"Abusing your power, eh?" Another added as he stepped beside his fellow colleague, smirking.

"Sh...shut up. Out of my way, you scum!" Yoki ordered. But you knew that his power and authority over them was crumbling away. "If you don't want to get hurt you better-"

"Lieutenant... It's not good to underestimate the strength of coal miners." The man growled, grinning as he cracked his knuckles. All the other miners joined him, picking up their tools with scary faces.

Soon enough, two of Yoki's men were down on the floor as he screamed like a little school girl.

"Oh, Lieutenant...?" Edward turned to the bastard, "I'll be sure to tell the higher-ups about your corruption and incompetence too." he said smiling as he gave a little wave, "So please look forward to it."

Yoki slumped to the ground in defeat, mouth hanging open as his soul left his body.

"ALRIGHT!" the coal miners cheered. "WE DID IT! BRING OUT THE BOOZE!"

Cayden laughed, watching the men drink and party. Ed came up behind Cayden, laughing. Cayden turned throwing her arms around him, placing a soft kiss on his cheek. Edward's eyes widened as he stumbled back, hand reaching up to touch his cheek where her lips made contact. His face flushed and he started babbling like an idiot, causing Cayden to laugh, which in turn made him blush redder.

"Wha-what was that for?!" Edward exclaimed, trying his best to regain his composure.

"It's a thank you, for earlier." Cayden said, laughing.

Before Edward could respond, he was dragged away by the miners as they tried to make him drink some beer.

"You can't give alcohol to minors! Hey stop it!" Ed yelled as one of the miners poured beer on his head.

Cayden laughed and grabbed a beer from the counter, running over she dumped it on his head.

"Oh, Edward, you're soaked!" Cayden laughed, ruffling his hair.

"No thanks to you!" Edward yelled, standing up.

"Well guys, looks like we gotta go! He needs to change his clothes!" Cayden said, smiling at the miners, "Now let's go!"

Cayden grabbed him by the hood of his coat, pulling him out of the inn. Al following close behind them.

"There. You idiot." Cayden growled, crossing her arms.

"You didn't need to soak me." Ed said, annoyed.

"Don't be such a baby, just use alchemy and fix it." Cayden grumbled.

"I'm not being a baby!" Ed shouted.

"Oh, is the big baby getting angry? Maybe the big baby needs to go night night." Cayden teased, ruffling his hair again.

**(A/N: Okay, I've decided I'm going to get on to the more interesting part of this after the find out about the homunculi and squeeze in the good part after laboratory 5 so just wait a little while longer and I should have it up and running soon! Favorite and Review please.)**


	7. Author's Note please read, help needed

**I will update the story after this but first I need your opinions. I've been debating on which Elric brother confesses the loves. I'm going to an Alphonse is the best *doing Ed's tall fantasy dance* faze, so I'm not sure if I want it to be Alphonse or Edward, so I need help with that. There's the Cat Lover or the Alchemy Freak. The kind boy stuck in the armor or the hot-headed sexy boy with auto-mail. Do you see how hard this is? cx Post who you want in the reviews or not if you don't get a rat's ass :3**

**Thanks to everyone that has favorite/reviewed/followed!**


	8. Chapter 6

**(A/N: Skipping train thingy :3 and the Shou Tucker and Nina part because that makes me sad and because Shou Tucker is one effed up guy, turning your daughter and your dog into chimera just to keep your job -.- although I like the part where Ed just beat the shit out of him because he totally deserved that. So I'm skipping up to the Scar part because I have something funny for that :3 so where this starts is when Scar shows up.)**

Cayden walked around the base of the clock tower. This was one of those rare occasions where she didn't have her cloak on. She walked around and sat by Edward. He hadn't really said anything since they all found out what happened to Shou Tucker and Nina. Cayden sighed, holding out her auto-mail covered hand, rain splattering against it.

"Big brother…?" Al said, looking over at Edward.

"Huh? Oh…sorry, I'm just so confused right now I can't think. I've been wondering what this alchemy that we trust in really is…" Edward mumbled, looking at the ground.

"The reconstruction of matter in new forms based on the knowledge of natural laws." Alphonse whispered.

Cayden leaned back on her arms, listening as she looked up at the sky.

"The world flows by obeying these laws, death too, is part of these laws. 'Accept the flow of the world.' Our teacher really beat that into us. I thought I knew what she meant, but I didn't. That's why mom…and that's why I'm wondering what I can do about something that nobody can fix." Ed mumbled, remembering Nina and Alexander, "I'm a fool. I haven't grown up at all since then. I thought the rain would wash away all my doubt…but all I know that this rain on my face is starting to bug me…"

"But…I don't even have a body that can feel the rain. It's lonely inside here…it's hard. I want to get my old body…I want to go back to being _human_. Even if it means doing the impossible and going against the flow of the world." Al said, looking at the ground.

"We're getting your bodies back, no matter what. I don't care what we have to do, we won't stop until you guys are fixed!" Cayden said, trying to cheer them both up.

Then they heard a shout, looking up they saw a guard running towards them.

"Edward!" Mr. Edward Elric!" The guard shouted.

A man with a beige jacket instantly stopped in his tracks, mumbling, "Elric…?"

The guard continued shouting at them, "Oh, I'm so glad you're alright! We've been looking for you!"

Mr. Beige Jacket man glanced behind him, "Edward…Elric…"

Edward and Alphonse stood up to talk to the guard, "What is it? Do you need me for something?"

The guard continued, "You're to return to headquarters immediately. There's a killer on the loose in this area…" He finished just as Mr. Beige Jacket man appeared behind him.

"Edward Elric…THE FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST!"**(no its Fullmetal pipsqueak, get it right cx)** He growled behind the guard.

"That scar!" The guard yelled, pulling out his gun.

"No don't!" Edward yelled just as Beige Jacket man grabbed him by the head, red sparks shooting out of his arm, making his brain explode.

"Oh shit!" Cayden yelled, jumping up.

Edward stared at him, frozen in place. The clock tower rung, knocking him out of his trance.

"Um…RUN!" Ed shouted, taking off, looking behind him to make sure Al and Cayden were following him.

"You won't get away!" Beige Jacket man shouted, running after them.

"What's _his_ problem?! I've never done anything to make someone _hate_ me…actually I've done that a lot, but…I don't deserve to _die_!" Ed shouted, looking back.

"Well I guess he thinks should! And do we even know that guy?!" Cayden yelled, looking behind her.

"Ed! Over here!" Al shouted from an alley.

"_What?!_ He _saw_ us go it here!" Ed yelled.

"Just watch!" Al yelled, drawing a transmutation circle, making a wall, "Now he can't come after us."

"Oh!" Ed said, relieved.

"Um…guys, I wouldn't be so sure of that." Cayden said, pointing to the red sparks, breaking the wall apart.

Beige Jacket man stepped over the remains of the wall, glaring at them.

"Well this is going perfectly!" Cayden yelled, pure sarcasm showing in her voice.

Beige Jacket man touched the wall, sending red sparks into it. The wall of the building started to crumb. Just as the group started running, the wall collapsed in front of them.

"Are you kidding me?" Edward huffed, turning back to beige jacket man, "Who the hell are you? And what the fuck do you want?!"

"There are those who create…and those who destroy." He said, calmly.

"What does that have to do with anything?!" Cayden yelled, grabbing one of her daggers.

He stayed silent.

"…I guess that was a waste of words…" Cayden grumbled, sighing.

Edward clapped his hands, grabbing a pole, "Guess I have no choice…"

The pole in Edward's hand turned into a sword and Alphonse got into a fighting position. Cayden clapped her hands, combining the dagger she was holding into the auto-mail on her hand.

"You're not afraid…" The man said, clenching his teeth.

"Hell no we aren't!" Cayden growled.

The three charged at the man, missing him as he dodged them.

"But you're slow!" He said, calmly, hand touching Alphonse's armor, shattering where his hand made contact.

Cats began flowing out of Alphonse's armor. Making the Beige Jacket man turned around, eyes sparkling.

"Kittahs." (Said in very creepy voice cx)

Cayden stared at the cats the flowed out of Al's armor, "What the…how the- Alphonse! How long have those cats been inside you?!"

"Umm…I don't remember." Al said, chuckling nervously as he slumped down against the building.

"That long, huh?" Cayden laughed, putting her hands on her hips, "How come you didn't tell me?!"

Cayden glared at Alphonse, totally forgetting some freak alchemist murderer was after them until she heard Ed yell, "You son of a-"

Beige Jacket man grabbed Ed's arm, "I said you're too slow!"

He sent red shocks down Ed's arm, sending Edward backwards.

"Edward!" Cayden yelled, rushing at Beige Jacket man.

Beige Jacket man grabbed onto Cayden's hand, squeezing it hard enough the brake it. She let out a squeak and smirked as she swung her foot up, aiming to kick him in the face. He dodged it and sent red sparks into her hand, making her gasp out in pain. He threw her back and she landed next to Al.

"Cayden! Are you okay?!" Al asked, leaning forward to her.

"Yeah, Al. I'm fine." Cayden gave him a weak smile, grabbing onto the auto-mail on her hand, undoing it and dropping it beside her.

The auto-mail piece was slightly burnt and was pretty much crushed in certain areas. Cayden held out her hand examining it. Only a few scratches and one long gash down her palm.

"Damn. Auto-mail is trashed and this hurts like shit." Cayden laughed at herself, "That's fine."

Cayden looked around, sighing. Nothing she could use to wrap up her hand with.

"Alphonse, look away." Cayden laughed, pulling off her tank top.

She wrapped it around her hand, tying in tightly.

"Not exactly what I wanted to wear in a fight." She grumbled, looking down at her black bra.

She looked over to Edward. He hadn't seen anything.

"Don't touch her." He snarled, ripping off his coat.

"Auto-mail. No wonder my attacks had no effect and him…I was planning on stripping him of his armor before I destroyed him, but there's nothing inside." Jacket man said, looking between the two brothers.

"You forgot about me, dumbass." Cayden snarled, throwing her damaged auto-mail covering at him, "You must be stupider then you look if you didn't notice this!"

Edward looked over at Cayden, eyes widening and face flushing as he realized she didn't have a shirt on. Cayden glared at him, running up beside him, grabbing what was left of his coat. She quickly tied it over her breasts, then kicked Ed in the leg.

"You guys are strange, this is gonna take longer then I intended." The man said, calmly as ever.

"Well I don't intend to make this to your timing!" Edward yelled, turning his arm into a sword.

"No! Edward! Cayden! You two have to run!" Alphonse yelled.

"Don't be stupid Al! We aren't leaving without you!" Cayden and Edward yelled at the same time.

"So you both create a transmutation circle by putting your hands together…and then use the power the flows between them…well then…" Jacket man said, hand twitching with red sparks.

Edward yelled, charging at him, trying to punch him.

"Ed! No!" Cayden yelled as he grabbed his arm.

"I'll start with your arm. Allow me to destroy it!" Jacket man yelled, sending charges through Ed's arm, shattering it.

Ed fell to the ground, looking at parts of his auto-mail as it fell to the ground.

"Edward!" Cayden and Alphonse yelled.

Cayden pulled the pistols out from behind her, running over to Edward, firing rounds at jacket man.

"Leave them alone!" She yelled, standing over Edward.

"Move girl. Justice needs to be served." He said, walking closer.

"Cayden, run. Get out of here." Edward said, gazing up at her.

"I'll serve your justice with fries and a drink!" Cayden yelled. (I was hungry…don't ask xD)

"Cayden, get out of here!" Edward yelled, pushing her away from him.

"I'm not leaving you guys!" Cayden growled, looking down at him for a moment.

Scar(screw it, I'm tired of calling him jacket man -.- was fun at first, now it's just stupid) took his chance and grabbed the top Cayden's head.

"Do it, I dare you." Cayden smirked, raising her gun up to his forehead.

Scar grunted and threw Cayden into the wall, knocking her out. Then he walked over to Edward, who had his eyes focused on Cayden.

"I'll give you a moment to pray."

"Sorry to disappoint you…but there's no god I feel like praying to right now." Ed mumbled, eyes glued to Cayden, "Am I the only one you're after? My younger brother Al…and Cayden…are you going to kill them?"

"If anyone gets in my way I will eliminate them…but right now I only have business with you, the Fullmetal Alchemist." Scar said.

"All right then, promise me. Promise you won't touch them."

"Ed…" Al whispered.

"I promise." Scar said, staring at Edward.

"What do you mean…?! Edward, what are you doing?! Run!" Alphonse yelled as Scar reached for Edward's head, "Get up! Run! Get out of there! No! Please don't do it! Don't kill him!"

Then a gun went off. Scar glanced to the side and Edward stared at the ground.

"That's enough." Colonel Mustang said, gun raised high, "That was close, Fullmetal."

"Colonel! He's-" Ed said, getting cut off by Mustang.

That man is suspected in the serial killings of State Alchemists. And judging from what I'm seeing, that suspicion just became fact. The murder at the Tucker estate…guess that was you too?" Mustang said, looking at Scar.

Edward clenched his teeth together, whipping his head back to look at Scar.

"This world was made perfect by God. Alchemists change the natural into the unnatural…twist things out of their true form. They sin by defacing God's creation. I am an instrument of Divine Judgment!" Scar shouted, clenching his fists.

"Makes sense. But then why…do you only target State Alchemists when there are so many other alchemists you could kill?" Mustang said, his normal butt-face expression on his face.

"If you insist on stopping me, I'll just eliminate you too." Scar said, being Scar(doesn't have many facial features -.-')

Mustang threw his gun to Hawkeye, pulling on his transmutation gloves, "Oh, you will, eh?"

"Colonel Mustang!" Hawkeye shouted.

"Stay out of this."

"Mustang…the State Alchemist?" Scar asked, typical Scar frown on his face.

"The one and only! I'm the 'Flame Alchemist' Roy Mustang!" Mustang growled, getting ready to snap his fingers.

"I never thought I'd see this…you turn from the path of God, then come to meet judgment of your own free will…WHAT A GLORIOUS DAY THIS IS!"

"You know that I'm the Flame Alchemist, but you still want to fight me?" Mustang yelled, snapping his fingers, "YOU'RE A FOOL!"

Scar charged at Mustang, hand of destruction ready to grab that smartass' face.

"Colo…" Hawkeye said, running forward, kicking under Mustang to knock him on his ass, just in time so Scar missed his head.

**(A/N: Blah Blah Blah…we already know what happens here so I skippy to the part where Al punches Ed in the face :D)**

xXxXx

"Alphonse!" Edward yelled, running over to him, "Al! Are you all right?! Hey!"

"Edward…" Al muttered, then yelled, punching him in the face (Yesh! :3) "You idiot!"

Edward stared at his brother, holding his face.

"Why didn't you run?!" Al yelled.

"I couldn't just leave you and Cayden here." Edward argued, then his eyes widen and he looked over at Cayden, he gasped, "…Cayden!"

Second Lieutenant Havoc and General Armstrong walked over to Cayden.

"Hey, she's cute." Havoc snickered as Armstrong kneeled down to see if she was breathing.

"Get away from her, you perv!" Edward yelled, flailing his arm and legs around like an idiot.

"How is it that a pipsqueak like you travels around with this gorgeous little girl?" Havoc said, jealously flashing in his eyes.

"You desperate freak." Mustang sighed, shaking his head, "I hope you know I can lock you up for that."

"Oh, come on, Mustang. I was just kidding!" Havoc said, acting innocent, "I can wait a few years. Just you wait, Colonel, she'll be mine in no time."

Ed clapped his hands, making a fist come out of the ground and punch Havoc in the face.

"Someone's jealous of my good looks…" Havoc's voice drifted off as he lay on the ground, defeated.

"Don't make me do it again!" Ed yelled, giving one of Ed's funny angry faces.

Armstrong glanced over his shoulder, saying, "She's breathing, but we need to get her to a hospital quickly."

Sighing Ed looked back at his brother, "Like I said, I couldn't leave you and Cayden here."

"That's what I mean by stupid!" Al yelled, punching Ed in the face again, knocking him backwards.

"Why?! If I ran away you or Cayden could have been killed!" Ed tried to reason with his brother.

"I might _not_ have been killed and maybe Cayden wouldn't be like that! When there's a way to survive and then you choose death, that's what idiots do!"

"We both know Cayden wouldn't have left us, even if someone dragged her away! She would come back! We both know she would never leave you, Alphonse! She sees you as a little brother. We are the only family she has left, Al, and she's not going to give us up that easily." Ed sighed, looking over at Cayden in Major Armstrong's arms.

"Okay then, if not for me, for her! You need to keep her alive! You saw what she did! She'd do anything to protect us! So do the same for her! You…you idiot!" Al yelled, eyes glowing brighter.

"D…don't talk to your older brother that way!"

"I'll talk to you however I want!" Al yelled, grabbing onto Ed's shirt, "You have to live…and keep living…so you can keep her alive and continue to research! You have to find a way to get our bodies back…and maybe a way to save girls like Nina! I won't let you throw that away! If you did, I'd never forgive you!"

With a large snap, Alphonse's arm fell off.

"Great! Now my arm came off! This is your fault, Edward! You idiot!"

Ed laughed weakly, "We're a real mess aren't we?"

"But we're alive…"

"Yeah…we're alive…"

xXxXx

"So what are you guys gonna do now?" Colonel Hughes asked, putting his hands on his hips.

"Well, I want to fix Al's body, but I can't use alchemy with just one arm…" Ed answered, looking over at Al.

"Shall I fix him for you?" Major Armstrong asked, flexing his muscles.

"No thank you." Al said, if he could look worried he would be.

"I'm the only one who knows how to keep Al's soul in the armor, beside Cayden, but she can't do it. So, I need to get a new arm." Edward said, holding onto his shoulder.

"Right, because if Edward can't use his alchemy…he's just…" Hawkeye started to say.

"…A little brat that swears a lot." Havoc mumbled, head leaning on his hand as he looked away.

"An arrogant pipsqueak…" Hughes said.

"Useless, just useless!" Mustang said, hand on his chin. (Like you're any better Mr. Can't Do Anything Else But Make Fire And Definitely Can't Do Anything When Wet…)

"Sorry…I don't know how to top that." Al said, nervously.

"You guys are just being mean!" Ed whined, waving his arm around, "Well I guess the only thing I can do now is go see my mechanic…"

"Hey, Al, I'll be back in a minute." Ed said, holding onto his shoulder.

"Where are you going brother?" Al asked, looking up at him.

"I need to do something before we leave. It'll be quick." Ed smiled as he walked towards the door.

xXxXx

"Do you know which room Cayden is in?" Edward asked Lieutenant Hawkeye as they walked down the hospital corridor.

"209, I believe." She said, eyes staring straight ahead, hands crossed behind her back.

"Thanks!" Ed smiled as he sprinted down the hall.

He stopped at the room numbered 209 and looked through the window on the door. Spotting Cayden, he grabbed the knob, turning it. He walked over to Cayden, pushing her blonde hair out of her face. He chuckled softly as she moved around in annoyance. She had woken up an hour or two after Scar got away, mumbling something about cupcakes.

"At least they got you in some actual clothes instead of that shredded cloak." He laughed, moving to grab her hand, but stopped, hovering about it.

Something caught his eye. Grabbing onto his auto-mail shoulder piece, he walked over to the chair by the window. Smirking, he picked up the clothes they had laid out for her. A white button-up blouse and a black pencil skirt.

"What are they trying to do to you? Make you a secretary? I need to remember to fix this when I get my arm back…" He laughed quietly to himself, trying not to wake Cayden.

Then he spotted her busted up auto-mail covering.

"Better have Winry fix this." He said, placing the clothes down and picking up the covering.

Sighing, he walked back over to Cayden.

"Hey, Cayden, if you can hear me, Al and I are going to Resembool to get my arm fixed. We should be back soon." He whispered with a smile.

He leaned forward and without realizing it, he placed a soft kiss on her lips. He let out a small laugh as she stirred. He stood straight and walked over to the door. Freezing completely, his eyes widen and face flushed as he realized what he had just done.

"She was asleep. She doesn't know. No one saw. It's fine…" He whispered to himself, head down as he walked out the door, hiding the fact that he was blushing hard.

**(A/N: I was already in the process of writing this before I asked which Elric confesses the loves :3 and I have something planned so this doesn't mean it will be Edward that confesses, for all you know it could be Alphonse :3 but I shall not tells. I still would like it if you guys post who you want. Anyways, favorite and review for mores and tell me who you would like ^-^ and also I just got a new kitten, was thinking of naming _her _Alphonse cx but I'm thinking Charlie :3 and she is a handful. I'll try to update as soon as I can. Thanks everyone for reading my fan fic)**


	9. Chapter 7

**(A/N: XD some of the reviews you guys post! When I saw people voting for Alphonse I was like yesh votes for teh mew mew boy :3 Anyway here is the new chapter, hopefully I'll be able to update the next chapter in a few days. Already started it and it's gonna be good :3 Still want your suggestions on who confesses teh loves, I'll probably decide which after the next chapter, but for now keep suggesting which ^-^ cause they are tied TT^TT)**

Edward burst through the door of Cayden's small hospital room, startling her. He thr a small stack of papers in her lap then walked over to the window, staring out it. Alphonse walked in after him, sighing, "Brother, you can't just go barging in throwing stuff at her."

Edward just grunted, eyes showing no expressions. He slightly glanced over his shoulder at Cayden. Seeing she was staring at him confused, he mumbled, "Read it." Then continued looking out the window.

"1,000 meals for daily living?" Cayden questioned, looking down at the first page.

"Just read it and read it closely…" Ed mumbled through his teeth, clenching his fists.

Cayden sighed and began reading, pausing now and then when she thought she read something that didn't sound right. Cayden mumbled something under her breath and put down the papers. She swung her legs over the side of the hospital bed and began walking to the door.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Al asked Cayden, catching Ed's attention.

Cayden shook her head and walked out of the room, looking for a nurse.

"Cayden! Get back in this bed!" Ed yelled, sticking his head out of the room.

Cayden smirked, not looking back as she continued down the hall. Walking up to the front desk, she searched for a pen. Finding a red one, she smiled. Edward came running down the hall after her.

"What are you doing?!" he demanded, crossing his arms.

"Pen." She held up the pen, smiling.

"…you're kidding right?"

"Nope."

Ed sighed and picked her up bridal style.

"What are you doing?" Cayden grumbled, trying to escape his grasp.

"I'm taking you back to your room, where you will be staying and not leaving again."

Cayden mumbled something under her breath and allowed Ed to take her back to the room. When they got back into the room, Cayden jumped out of Ed's arms and jumped on the bed. Picking up the papers, she began circling words.

She began talking to herself out loud, **"(after searching the web for this info I found absolutely nothing! Well that's not true, but most of the things I got I didn't like so yeah…just go with it) **Blah, blah, blah…hmm…? Human liv-"

She threw the papers against the wall and looked up at Ed.

"What the fuck is that…" She whispered, eyes glancing over the papers.

"Ingredients for a Philosopher's Stone." Ed mumbled, looking away.

"Bullshit. You're messing with me aren't you? Ed, if you are messing with me, so help me God I will throw cats at you. **(just for Alphonse ^-^)**" Cayden laughed nervously, glancing between Ed and Al.

"It's the truth, Cayden, and there's nothing we can do about it." Alphonse sighed, crossing his arms.

"There has to be some kind of mistake…" Cayden whispered, biting her lip.

"No. No mistake. We went over it time and time again and the same thing came up…" Ed mumbled, casting a glance at her.

"But…" Cayden mumbled, looking down at her hands.

"We do have a lead though, there's a lab that has been shut down and it's next to a prison, so I'm sure that's our place." Ed smirked, leaning against the wall.

"Human lives? Philosopher's Stone? Prison?" Cayden whispered, putting the pieces together, "They can't be…"

"They are…" Alphonse mumbled, looking at her.

"Well shit." Cayden grumbled, putting her hand on her head.

She slid out of her bed, grabbing her black shorts **(Changed already :3)**.

"What are you doing?" Ed asked, arching his eyebrows.

"What does it look like?" Cayden gave a small laugh, sliding off the hospital pants and replacing them with the shorts.

"If you think you're coming with us, you're wrong." Ed said, slight concern in his voice.

Cayden didn't notice as she took off the hospital shirt, causing Ed to blush and look away. Cayden pulled on the tank top and grabbed her bag, tying it around her waist. She checked inside it and found at of her daggers still there, all except the three she had around her thighs and her arm.

"Hey, do either of you know where they put my guns and the three daggers that are missing from my bag?" Cayden glanced up, closing her bag.

"I think Hawkeye has them. Said she'll bring them by when you leave." Ed replied.

"I don't understand why they won't let me leave. I'm perfectly fine." Cayden grumbled, crossing her arms.

"You had a concussion and your hand is fucked up." Ed sighed, dropping his head into his hand then he looked up, "Oh, yeah. Here, I had Winry fix it."

Ed took out her auto-mail covering from his pocket, throwing it to her.

"Oh, thanks." Cayden smiled, strapping it to her hand, "Let's go."

xXxXx

"Why the hell is a guard here? This is an abandon building…" Cayden whispered, back against the wall, looking around it at the guard.

"Who knows…now how are we gonna get in?" Ed grumbled, rolling his eyes.

"Can't use alchemy. It might alert that guard." Al whispered to them.

"Right, then we'll make our own entrance." Ed smiled, looking up at the barbed wire along the wall.

Alphonse threw him up on the wall and Ed began pulling at the barbed wire, lowering it down. He leaned down a bit, holding a hand out to Cayden. Alphonse threw Cayden upwards and she grabbed Ed's hand. He lifted her up and his face flushed when he realized they were nose-to-nose. Cayden quietly laughed at him and jumped off the wall as she heard Alphonse's armor clank against the wall as he started climbing. Ed jumped down beside her, examining their surroundings.

"Well that's great…entrance is blocked off…" He grumbled, walking over to it.

"What now?" Cayden sighed, crossing her arms.

Ed looked around, biting his lip. Looking up he saw an air vent.

"Go in through here." He smiled, pointing up, "Hey, Al, lift me up."

"Okay, big brother." Al said, allowing Ed to climb up onto his shoulders.

Ed removed the air vent, giving it to Al.

"Looks like it goes all the way back. I'm gonna go check it out." Ed said, pulling himself in the duct.

"You're going by yourself?" Al asked, grabbing his brother's ankle.

"If that's okay, yes I am." He glanced over at Cayden.

xXxXx

"He's taking forever." Al sighed, crossing his arms.

"He probably got stuck in there." Cayden smirked, "Oh, but wait, he's too small."

Al laughed, glancing back to her.

Then a large shadow passed over Alphonse. A large suit of armor dropped down, nearly on top of him, trying to cut him with a butcher knife.

"What the-" Al said, jumping back.

"You're not bad. Pretty fast for someone your size. I like that." The armor said, pulling his knife out of the ground, "This wouldn't really be any fun without a challenge."

"What? Who are you?" Al demanded as Cayden stuck up, daggers drawn.

"Number 66! Or at least that's the name they gave me when I got this job." 66 said, knife resting against his shoulder.

He started laughing, "If you heard my real name, you'd piss your pants. I think I'll tell you as I finish you off."

"So, you're saying you're going to kill me?" Al asked, smirking if he could.

66 laughed, "I'll have you chopped in no time, so if you want to scream to it now!"

Cayden ran at 66, jumping up and kicking him over, "I'm sorry but I can't allow you to do that to him."

"Who's this pretty girl? Your girlfriend?" 66 laughed, standing up, "Fine, I'll just chop you up too."

"No you won't! I won't let you lay a hand on her!" Alphonse yelled, punching 66 in the face, knocking him on his ass again.

66 jumped up, swinging his knife around trying to cut Alphonse. Alphonse easily dodge each one, drawing 66 away from Cayden.

"Why. Won't. You. Sit. Still. And. Let. Me. Cut. You!" 66 shouted in between swings, "It won't hurt that bad!"

"And what exactly did you expect me to say?" Alphonse asked, blocking his attacks.

Al let out a gasp as he tripped on a rock.

"Alphonse!" Cayden shouted, running towards him.

"Lucky!" 66 shouted, stabbing Alphonse in the arm, "Now I'll just cut into that nice shoulder roast!"

66 swung his butcher knife down, but before he managed to make contact the sword holding down his arm snapped.

"Wha-" Was the only thing 66 managed to get out before Alphonse punched him in the face, knocking him back.

66's head flew off with a clank causing Alphonse and Cayden to gasp. Cayden grabbed onto Al's hand as 66 stood up.

"You little shit. You made my head fall off…" 66 said, sarcastically.

"Your body is…" Al's voice trailed off.

"Well, you see…there was an incident…" He said, spinning his head on his finger.

He snapped his head back into place, continuing, "It's possible that you've heard it before. A story about a _butcher_ named _Barry_. Once upon a time, in Central, lived a butcher named Barry."

"Well, no. You totally didn't already tell us that it was a story about a butcher named Barry…"Cayden mumbled, sarcastically.

"Shut up girl! I need to finish my story so I can chop you up!" 66 shouted, pointing his knife at her, he continued, "Barry loved to chop up meat more than anything else in the world, but then, one day, Barry got tired of chopping up pigs and cows…he began looking for something new…people. So, he went out night after night after night looking for fresh meat to chop up. He was eventually caught, but no before taking 23 slaughtered victims down with him. For terrorizing the poor people of Central, he was sent straight to the gallows…and everyone lived happily ever after. At least that's the version everyone knows of. There's actually more to this story."

Cayden yawned sarcastically as she leaned against Al's arm.

"You see, Barry didn't actually go to the gallows like everyone thinks. Someone spared his life on the condition that he was to guard a certain location, but first, they had to take away his body and put him in metal. And guess what? He's staying in front of you right now! I'm Barry the Chopper!" Barry yelled, pointing his knife at them.

"Who?" Al asked, tilting his head, "We're from a small village back east. We don't really know anything about 'famous' murderers in Central."

"Okay, so maybe you haven't heard of me, but you still must be shocked my body?" Barry questioned, "Not every day you see a living suit of armor. You could at least be scared, maybe scream a little."

"No, not really. I happen to see one every day and have for a while. And you know what? I'm not the least bit scared of him." Cayden snarled, stepping forward, "And he's not just a living suit of armor…he's like my little brother. So don't you dare say you're just a living suit of armor, because if you did that would mean you're calling him a suit of armor. I don't take calling him a suit of armor lightly."

Al took off his head, causing Barry to scream, "You're a freak! What's wrong with your body?!"

"Hey, now you're hurting my feelings." Al mumbled, sarcastically.

"Okay, so you're just another inmate from death row. Don't scare me like that!" Barry laughed.

"He's/I'm not a criminal!" Cayden and Alphonse yelled.

"You aren't? Then what happened to you?" Barry asked.

"When my body disintegrated, my brother transmuted my soul in this armor." Al said, clicking his head back into place.

"A brother? Sure! A brother!" Barry started laughing.

Cayden clenched his fists together.

"What's so funny?" Al asked.

"Oh, nothing, but I'm just wondering, do you trust your brother?"

"Al, Ed's been in there way to long, I'm going to check on him. This guy's pissing me off, don't believe whatever he says and just take him down." Cayden growled as she turned and ran toward the vent, clapping her hands, raising up a pillar of earth, crawling into the duct.

xXxXx

Cayden heard voices and looked through one of the vents she had found along the way. She was right above another one of those guys stuck in armor. She removed the grate and stuck her head out, looking around and spotting the familiar blonde shrimp. Cayden looked behind her seeing another grate.

"What is that above?" She whispered to herself, sticking her head out, seeing that it was shadowed in darkness.

Cayden crawled back and kicked off the grate just as Ed yelled, "Al! Now!" covering up the noise it made.

Cayden gave a mental thanks to Ed and lowered herself down, dropping to the ground. Cayden hid behind a pillar, watching.

"Wha-" The armor said, turning around, eyes off Ed, "A trick!"

The armor spun back around to face Ed just has he knocked off his head.

"That's not fair!" It shouted.

"All's fair in a fight to the death." Ed said, wiping blood from his mouth as he walked away.

He turned his auto-mail back into a hand, mumbling, "That's better…" before walking back and picking up the head.

"What's wrong? You haven't destroyed my blood rune. Hurry up and finish m- Hey!" It said as Ed picked up his head.

"Why bother? Now that your head isn't on your body, it's just a lump of metal, so no point really. Besides, I have to ask you about something…" Ed smirked.

"…the philosopher's stone?" It asked.

"Yes, tell me exactly everything you know about it." Ed said, serious look on his face.

"Never." It said.

"You are hardly in the position to argue…now that you lost, tell me everything you know." Ed smirked, sparkles coming off him. **(Not like that twilight crap -.-)**

"No, you're wrong. I haven't lost yet!" It yelled as Ed's eyes widen when he heard the clanking of armor.

Then a blade sliced his side. Ed turned, grabbing onto his side, staring at the moving armor.

"How…?" He asked, panting and falling to the ground.

"No one said two souls can't share the same armor. Forgot to mention this, but when they finally caught the 'Slicer' they caught two brothers."

"The head and body are separate?! What a cheap tri-" Ed growled through his teeth.

"Who said 'All's fair in a fight to the death'?" The head said.

"Indeed. It's our job to eliminate any trespassers come first, just following our orders." The body said, swinging his sword, "Let's begin round two, little man!"

Ed got up, legs shaking.

"Allow me to show you where my blood rune is. Aim well if you want to destroy me." The body said, leaning down to show Ed the rune, "But seeing your condition, it's not very likely that you can even fight."

"Don't…under…estimate…" Ed managed to say, clapping his hands.

"Not this time, shorty! I'm not giving you time to transmute!" The body yelled, charging at Edward.

Ed dodged his attacked, only to be hit in the stomach with the backend of the sword, causing him to cough up blood. He stumbled back into the wall, falling down. He clapped his hands saying, "Dammit. Please work."

"I already told you! I'm not going to let you transmute!" The body yelled, charging at him again.

Ed leaned forward, touching the body's armor just as its sword lodged itself into the wall. He shattered the armor into two pieces.

"How can this be…?" The head said, voice drifting off slightly.

Ed slumped back against the pillar, holding his side. He sighed, closing his eyes. Cayden began walking towards Ed, stopping behind the pillar closest to him but still in the darkness.

"Damn it! How could you do that to me, you little brat!" What was left of the body yelled, worming around.

"What the hell!" Ed shouted, jumping.

"I really hate to admit this, but we've lost." The head sighed.

"H-hey, you guys aren't going to tell me there's a third brother, are you?" Ed asked, poking the legs with his foot.

"No, but that was pretty amazing, kid. This time you've won." The head said.

"Then this time, could you tell me everything you know about the stone?" Ed questioned, huffing.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, so could you just hurry up and destroy us."

"I'm not a murderer." Ed muttered.

"How can you call us _humans_ in bodies like these? I didn't tell you to kill us, I told you to _destroy_ us."

"If I accepted that you two weren't human, I'd pretty much be saying that my brother isn't human. My younger brother and you two are human, so I'm not going to kill you." Ed said, eyes becoming serious.

Cayden leaned against the pillar, biting her lip. She wanted to go help him, but she didn't want him to know she was there. Cayden sighed, sliding down. She closed her eyes for a moment, but they shot open when she heard laughter.

"Big brother, how ironic is this?!" The body piece laughed, almost uncontrollably.

"From the time we knew what was what, we stole, killed, and destroyed. Labeled as outcasts and savages. Being treated like human beings for the first time after giving up our bodies and not our hearts. Ironic definitely, little brother. Hey kid! You wanted to know about the stone? Okay, as a farewell gift, I'll tell you everything I know!" The head laughed.

Cayden's eyes widened and she tried not to cry about 'speech' I guess you can call it.

"Brother! You if say anything about it, we'll be punished!" The younger brother shouted.

"We'll be punished anyway for not terminating an intruder. And it's not like we haven't died once. It's too late to be afraid." The older brother sighed, "But as I said before, I don't know much about alchemy. I know absolutely nothing about the philosopher's stone."

Cayden did an epic facepalm, but continued to watch from her hiding spot.

"Then what's the point in talking?!" Ed shouted, kicking his legs around.

"I don't know about the stone, but I know who made it. Or you could say the ones who told us to guard this place."

"Who are they?!" Ed yelled, leaning forward.

"They are-" He was cut off but two long needle like things piercing through him, straight through his blood seal.

Edward's eyes widen as he gasped. Cayden covered her mouth from making a noise, but grabbed for her daggers. Two people stood at the doorway. A thin woman in a dress and a miniskirt freak with green hair.

"That was close. You shouldn't blab that much, 48." The thin woman said as the needle things retracted, bringing the helmet with them.

"Oh my…why is the Fullmetal runt here?" The miniskirt freak asked, hands on his hips, "Hmm…looks like I need to fix this."

"I wonder how he found out about this place…" The woman sighed, nails retracting from the helmet as it began to drop, she said, "I really do hate to do this in front of your brother but…"

Her arm turned into a sword as she cut the helmet in half.

"Big brother! Brother! Big brother!" The younger brother yelled as the miniskirt freak walked over to the sword on the ground, "Dammit! Give us a new body, we can still fight! Give us a new body! Give us a-"

The guy in the miniskirt stabbed the sword through the blood seal, cutting the younger brother off, "Just shut up before you say anything you'll regret. Don't you two realize you both almost killed a precious human sacrifice? You couldn't possibly know what that means, do you? Not only that, but you almost revealed our secrets." He started stabbing the blood seal repeatedly, continuing, "You two could have messed up everything, you know that? What would you have done? Make it up to us? _Well?!_ Say something!"

"Envy. He's dead." The woman smirked.

"Oh…? Figures. The thought of him being so weak sickens me." Envy smirked, resting the sword on his shoulder.

Envy walked over to Edward, kneeling down in front of him.

"Pleased to meet ya, Fullmetal Pipsqueak." Envy smiled at him, "I gotta hand it to ya for makin' it this far, but you saw something you shouldn't have."

Envy leaned closer, smirking, "Maybe I should kill you anyways?"

Edward clenched his teeth together and used the pillar he was leaning against to stand up, he growled through his teeth, "Why…you…"

"Hmm…?" Envy questioned.

Edward aimed a kick at Envy, missing as he slightly jumped back.

"That's cute. He still has some fight left in him! What a letdown, I was hoping we wouldn't have to fight him. I don't really want to get hurt." Envy sighed, rubbing the back of his head.

"Quit calling me small!" Edward yelled, clapping his hands, "You guys started this! Now I'm going to finish it!"

Then his arm made a cracking sound and went limp, unable to move.

"Technical difficulties?" The woman asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Lucky me!" Envy shouted, arms raised in triumph.

Envy grabbed on to Edward's hair and kneed him in the stomach, making him throw up blood.

"I was just kidding when I said I was gonna kill you." Envy smirked, dropping Edward on the ground.

Envy looked down at Edward, smirking. A dagger flew at him, lodging into his side.

"Wha…?" Envy questioned, pulling the dagger out.

"Get away from him." Cayden snarled, walking out of the darkness.

"Oh? Who's this?" Envy smirked, looking at her.

"I said get away from him!" Cayden yelled, holding up three more daggers in between her fingers.

"Cayden…get out of here…" Edward said weakly as he looked up.

Cayden threw a dagger at Envy only to have him dodge it.

"Is this your girlfriend?" Envy laughed, looking at Edward, hands on his hips.

"What is with you people? Why does everyone think I'm one of their girlfriends?! First that Barry the Chopper guy thinks I'm Alphonse's girlfriend and now…whatever you are," Cayden growled, motioning to Envy, "thinks I'm his girlfriend."

"Well, then why do you stay with him?" Envy asked, crossing his arms.

"Because I was there when everything happen. I know what he went through. I'm helping him get his body back and I'm not going to let you kill him." Cayden growled, reaching behind her to grab for her pistols only to remember she didn't have them.

"Weren't you listening? I'm not going to kill him, he's a human sacrifice. You on the other hand aren't, so I can kill you if I want." Envy mocked her.

"You can try." Cayden smirked, crossing her arms.

Envy grunted, "Who would you like to see last before you die."

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Cayden snarled, glancing at Ed.

"Oh I see…that's who." Envy smiled as he transformed into Edward.

Cayden gave a small gasp as he walked up to her. She held up her daggers, ready to attack if necessary.

"Now, now, you wouldn't hurt me would you?" Envy asked, sounding just like Edward.

"You're not Edward." Cayden snarled through her teeth.

"But I can be." Envy smirked, grabbing onto her wrist, lowering them.

He placed a hand on her cheek and leaned forward, resting his forehead on hers. Cayden tried to pull away but Envy stopped her, his lips meeting hers. Cayden started wide eyed at him before closing her eyes, leaning into the kiss, her arms rising to wrap around his neck. She allowed him to wrap his arms around her waist before she took one of her daggers and stabbed him in the neck.

"I can't believe you did that. That was one of your worst mistakes." Cayden smirked as Envy pushed back, eyes wide.

Then he started laughing, transforming back to his normal self, "Sorry, sweetheart, I don't die that easily if you haven't noticed."

He pulled out the dagger and used it against her, stabbing her stomach.

"Cayden!" Was the last thing she heard before Envy hit her on the back of the head, knocking her out.

**(A/N: And now everyone is voting for Alphonse and I don't know how to make it work o-o at least until the end that is. I'm having trouble writing because whenever I try I always get an idea but where i want to put it in the story I haven't written yet so I'll try to write more but then I start writing the idea instead. I've already started writing the ending XD so sorry I'm sorry the next chapter is going to be uploaded late)**


	10. Chapter 8

Cayden opened her eyes, moaning as she tried to grab her head, sudden pain shooting through her stomach, eyes widening as she realized they were tied together. She couldn't remember a lot, just that Edward, no, not Edward, someone else had kissed her and then knocked her out and that Edward was lying on the ground after being injured. She shot up, ignoring the pain in her stomach and tried to stand up, hitting her head on the bed over her.

"Great. Just Great." She grumbled, looking around, grabbing onto her head.

Nothing fancy, just a normal barred cell. Sighing, Cayden got to her feet, walking over to the bars.

"Hello? Anybody there?" She called out.

No reply.

"Great…" She growled, walking back over to the bed, plopping down on it with a soft thud.

Cayden reached to her side, grabbing for her bag only to find it was missing.

"Are you kidding me?" She sighed, looking up at the metal frame holding up the bed.

Clapping her hands she transmuted a small dagger like thing out of the side. Cayden put her hands up to the sharp piece of metal, rubbing the rope against it.

"What are you doing?" A somewhat familiar voice asked, startling her.

She glanced over, locking eyes with Envy.

"You?!" Cayden snarled as the rope snapped.

She flew out of the bed and grabbed onto the bars, teeth clenched.

"You shouldn't be that way, after all I saved you." He smirked, then raised up a tray with a cup of apple juice and a sandwich on it, "I also brought you some food…and if you're good, I'll give you a treat."

Cayden's stomach growled when she saw the sandwich and she instantly placed one of her hands on it. Envy unlocked the door and handed it to her, leaning against the bars. Cayden crossed her arms over her chest, refusing to take the tray. Envy sighed, transforming into Edward.

"Now will you take the food?" He grumbled, looking away.

"Asshole." Cayden muttered under her breath, hesitantly taking it from him.

Envy transformed back and watched her. Cayden picked up the sandwich and began eating it, eyes on Envy. When she finished the sandwich she downed the apple juice and stared up at Envy.

"Why am I here?" She asked, bringing her knees to her chest.

"When I stabbed you, I had planned to kill you, but I decided not to. Before the building completely fell down, I got the pipsqueak back to the tin can and brought you here so you wouldn't die." Envy sighed, reaching into his pocket **(Pretend he has them :3)**, "Here."

He threw her a box of Pocky **(yayz!)**. Cayden caught it swiftly.

"Don't call Alphonse a tin can." Cayden snarled at him.

"Whatever. Anyway I saved you because if you went to the hospital they went to, you would be dead now." Envy crossed his arms over his chest.

"Why are you helping me?" Cayden asked, smirking.

"I have my reasons." He mumbled, not meeting her eyes.

"And what would those reasons be?" Cayden questioned, sticking one of the chocolate biscuits in her mouth, one end hanging out.

"Edward's auto-mail broke and he's in the hospital. Also I have new clothes for you." Envy tried to change the subject.

"He's in the hospital?! How bad is he hurt?!" Cayden asked, worry in her voice.

"You don't remember anything do you?" Envy smirked at her.

"I do remember something's…like what you did." Cayden muttered, looking away.

"Yeah. Sorry about that." Envy rubbed the back of his head, "I wanted to know what the shrimp would do. You should have seen what he did. He crawled over to you, covering you, thinking I would hurt you more. He pulled you into his arms, protecting you and trying to stop the bleeding. He thought you were going to die. Then I came in and knocked him out and carried him outside to the officers and his brother. I got you out and detonated the bombs in there."

"So he thinks I'm dead…?" Cayden asked, staring at the floor.

"He could have lost his memory of what happen and thinks you're alive or he thinks you're dead, either way he probably blames himself for it." Envy gave her a small smile.

"I have to get back to them." Cayden said, jumping up, sticking another biscuit stick in her mouth.

"I'm afraid I can't allow that." Envy said, walking over to her, grabbing onto her forearms.

"I wasn't asking." Cayden smirked at him.

"Neither was I." He smiled, biting off the end of the Pocky stick that was hanging out of her mouth.

"Well then could I at least get a shower and my stuff back?" She smiled at him.

"Fine." Envy rolled his eyes, "But don't try anything."

"Yes sir." Cayden gave him a sarcastic salute.

xXxXx

Cayden stood outside Central headquarters in her new outfit. A black skirt and blue tank top **(If you've seen Lucy from Fairy Tail you now know what kind of body she has and what she's wearing. Instead of a pink tank top in the episode where they are hired to destroy that book it's blue but the skirt is the same)**. Envy stood next to her disguised as a soldier.

"So how long are you going to shepherd me around like this?" Cayden asked, glancing to her side before reaching into her bag and pulling out the box of Pocky he had given her earlier.

"I planned on leaving you leave by yourself but they told me to take you to the hospital the Elric brothers are at." Envy sighed, rubbing the back of his head.

"I still don't understand why you haven't killed me yet." Cayden turned to him, arms crossed.

Envy stayed silent as they started walking, Cayden looked back at him occasionally.

"Try and catch me." Cayden shouted to him as she took off down an alley.

She kept running until she couldn't hear his footsteps behind her and began running towards the hotel they had been staying at. She ran up to the desk and asked from the room key, thanking the man at the desk as she ran up the stairs to room. She looked around before opening the door and shutting it behind her. She looked around for her cloak, spotting it next to her pistols.

"Hawkeye had it, huh?" She smiled as she put them in the waistband of her skirt.

She pulled her cloak over her face and continued to look for things, finding her spare change of clothes under her bed in a small backpack. She put the bag over her shoulder and walked into the bathroom, throwing back her hood and putting her hair in a ponytail. She pulled the hood back over her head, checking that it covered her face before running down the hall and placing the key on the front desk and made her way out the door.

xXxXx

It had taken fifteen minutes of running around Central before finding the right hospital. Cayden walked into the building and stopped at the front desk, waiting for a nurse.

Just in case the nurse was Envy, she said, "Hello, I'm looking for Major Armstrong. I heard he was he visiting someone named Edward Elric. I was wondering if you could take me to that room or call him down for me."

"Is the reason important?" The nurse asked with a smile.

"Yes. It's an important message for his eyes only." Cayden smiled, holding up a slip of paper.

"Okay, I'll call him down." The nurse smiled as she picked up the intercom phone, calling for Major Armstrong.

Cayden thanked the nurse and began pacing the room until he showed up.

"Major Armstrong, I have a message for you." Cayden handed him the slip of paper, her smile only showing under her hood.

He read the message and once in a while looked down at Cayden.

"Okay, I understand. Miss Faye, please come with me so you can tell me all the details." He said loud enough for the nurses in the room to overhear, winking at Cayden.

"Sir yes, sir." Cayden said, saluting Major Armstrong before following him down the corridor to the room Edward was staying in.

"Sorry I had to call you down like that. I'm sure someone was following me and I had to make sure I didn't say I was here for Ed and Al but for you instead." Cayden sighed as she pulled her hood up a little to see in front of her.

"It's a good thing you came when you did. Alphonse is acting strange and the boys are both worrying about you." Major Armstrong smiled at her, continuing, "I tried to calm them down by showing them my fantastic body!"

He ripped off his shirt and started flexing, sparkles forming around him. Cayden looked away, staring at the wall in horror as Major Armstrong began walking again. Cayden quickly caught up as he opened the door and walked in.

"Hey Major." She heard Edward say, his voice making her stop by the door.

She took a deep breath and walked in, closing the door behind her and instantly walking over to the windows, closing the curtains. Her spun on her heel and threw herself at Edward, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"C-Cayden…?" Edward questioned, face flushed.

She pushed away from him smiling then walked over to Alphonse, who sat on the floor.

"I know you can't feel this but…" Cayden smiled at him, leaning down, hugging him.

Then she whispered loud enough for only him to hear, "When we get your body back then I'll hug you again. That way you can feel it."

She turned to Edward, "Did you call Winry to fix your arm?"

"Y-yeah…" Edward stuttered, glancing to his arm then back to Cayden, "H-how…I saw you-"

Cayden put up her hand silencing him, "I don't remember most of what happen since that asshole knocked me out, but he saved me apparently and told me what you did."

Cayden smirked at him causing him to blush and look away.

"And he took me to Central Headquarters, locked me in a cell…I'm going to kill him later for that…somehow. Anyway, he sorta saved me and got me new clothes that weren't covered in blood. Also he gave me these." She took out the box of Pocky from her bag, sticking one in her mouth, "Want one?"

Ed shook his head and looked to Major Armstrong, "The train Winry's on should be here soon."

"Right. I shall go meet Miss Rockbell there." Armstrong nodded, leaving the room.

"So you don't remember anyth-" Edward was cut off by the door slamming open and Cayden sliding under the hospital bed.

Envy stood in the doorway, disguise as a guard. Edward looked over his shoulder, eyes wide.

"Can I help you?" He asked, turning around.

"Where is that girl? She took off and I can't find her. You would think this is where she would have gone first." Envy started talking to himself then realized Ed was staring at him, "Um…nothing. I'm looking for someone."

He closed the door and began walking away. After his footsteps faded away Cayden came out from under the bed.

"You wanna tell me what that was about?" Ed shot Cayden a glance.

"That was the guy who tried to kill me at laboratory 5." Cayden smiled nervously.

"What? Doesn't be look different? That can't be him." Ed said, looking like he was gonna rush out and beat up Envy then he began to rubbed the back of his head.

"Well…he can disguise himself as different people." Cayden crossed her arm over her chest.

"Oh yeah. Like at the lab he turned into me and kissed you." Ed said, hand under his chin, eyes widening, "HE KISSED YOU!"

Cayden stuck another Pocky stick in her mouth, "Yeah. Not that big of a deal, but don't remind me."

"DISGUISED AS ME!" Ed shouted, waving his good arm all over the place, "And you…kissed him back…"

Cayden blushed slightly, saying, "Only did it to distract him and look where that got me."

"Well…what about…" His voice drifted off as he blushed harder, looking away.

"What about what?" Cayden asked, sticking another Pocky still in her mouth **(Whenever she puts another in her mouth she already ate the first one. When I read this over I ended up thinking she had like 50 in her mouth at one time until I remembered XD)**.

"Um…never mind, I was thinking of something else." He gave her one of his famous grins, blush still on his cheeks.

"Okay whatever…" Cayden said, not understanding what he was getting at.

Cayden walked over at sat next to Al, kicking her feet over the arm of the small couch, leaning against him.

"So what's wrong with your arm?" Cayden asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I can't move it. Well I can move the fingers but other than that I can't move it at all." Ed sighed, looking down at his arm, wiggling his fingers.

"Hmm…" Cayden stood up, walking over to him, "Let me see it."

"What? You don't know anything about auto-mail…except you could use alchemy to fix it…" He said, eyes widening and a grin appearing, "Why don't you just use alchemy and fix it?"

"We'll see, but I think you might need a tune-up…and it's better if Winry does it in case I mess it up more. I'll take look though…if you want." Cayden smiled, placing a hand on his arm, making him blush.

"Umm…s-sure…" Ed's face flushed as he took off his shirt and the sling holding up his arm.

Cayden instantly noticed the missing screw that connected his arm to his shoulder.

"Oh Winry…you really messed up…" She whispered to herself.

"Hmm…?" Ed questioned, glancing over his shoulder at her.

"Oh…umm…I said…Oh you really messed it up and Winry is gonna be pissed." Cayden laughed nervously as she let go of his arm, patting him on the head.

"What's wrong with it?" Ed asked, nervous look on his face.

"Oh would you look at the time." Cayden acted like she was looking at a watch on her wrist then ran back to the couch, jumping on it, "Nap time!"

She dropped down, covering her face with her hood as she rested her head on Al's leg. Pretending to snore she opened one eye, slightly lifting her hood as she looked out, meeting Ed's eyes. He started at her, hand out reaching for her as he stood frozen in place, confused. The door opened and Winry dropped her suitcase, seeing all of Ed's bandages around his waist and head.

"They didn't tell me it was this bad…" She whispered, looking down and clenching her fists.

"Winry!" Cayden shouted, jumping up to hug her friend.

She stopped midway across the room and started having a coughing fit, coughing up blood into her hands.

"What the…? Well, that's not normal." Cayden whispered to herself, hiding her hands behind her back, palms outward, forgetting Al was behind her, "I'm okay."

"No you aren't!" Al said, jumping up, grabbing her hands and showing them to Winry and Ed.

"Thanks, Al…throw me under the bus why don't you. We have more important things to deal with, like fixing Ed's arm." Cayden moaned sarcastically as she wiped her hands on her cloak, "It's probably just from that asshole stabbing me."

"You were stabbed?" Winry asked, running to her friend.

"Yeah, but Ed almost died." She grinned evilly at Ed, but then stopped when she noticed Winry was looking at the ground, fists clenched.

"W-winry? What's wrong?" Cayden asked, placing her hands on Winry's shoulders.

"It's my fault…" She whispered, a couple tears falling down her cheeks.

"What?" Cayden asked, leaning down to look her in the eyes.

"You both got hurt because the auto-mail I made failed…" Winry whispered.

"No, Winry, it's my fault. I didn't get help out in time and then that asshole kissed me…anyway, don't blame yourself. It's my fault Winry, not yours." Cayden gave her a small smile before hugging her. Cayden whispered in Winry's ear, "I hope you have that screw."

She pushed back and winked before walking over to the couch and plopping down, taking out her box of Pocky. She reached in to grab one but only found crumbs.

"Damn. These were good to…" She stood up and took the hair tie from her wrist and tied up her hair, pulling her hood over her face, "I'll be back."

"Where are you going?" Ed asked as he lay on the bed, arm outstretched a table for Winry to fix.

"I'm gonna see if I can get more of these. Hopefully that ass isn't disguise as anyone…which reminds me, can I borrow your clothes?" Cayden asked, crossing her arms.

"What? No! That's weird!" Ed shouted, leaning towards her, almost falling out of the bed until Winry hit him with her wrench, causing him to move back, somewhat cowering, "Go with Al."

"Yes, because if I'm with the younger brother of the Fullmetal Alchemist, who is trapped in a suit of armor because of our mistake, we sure aren't gonna be noticed! Just whatever, if I'm not back in a couple minutes don't come looking for me, I'm probably dead or got kidnapped again!" Cayden sang the last part, glancing over her shoulder, smirking at him.

"Okay then, bye." Ed chuckled, shaking his head.

Cayden looked over at Al, who was staring down at the ground. She walked over at took his hand, smiling at him.

"Why don't you come with me anyway? Looks like you could use something to do. And I would rather have you come with me more than dress up like shorty…and now that I think about it, I would still be targeted." Cayden leaned over, looking into his eyes.

Al stayed silent but stood up, nodding. Cayden took his hand, dragging him to the door.

"Thanks, Al." She smiled up at him then looked at Ed and stuck out her tongue.

Ed gave her a weak teasing smile, trying to hide the fact he was clenching his teeth together out of jealously, watching her drag his little brother out of the room.

**(A/N: Sorry that really sucked and I'm sorry it took so long to upload a new chapter. I still have no clue on how to make it work with Al, I'm thinking but so far nothing is working. Kinda makes me feel bad for Ed o-o it's like he falls in love then she goes for his little brother... Thanks everyone for reading my fan fic! xoxo)**


	11. Chapter 9

Cayden walked beside Al, at least twelve boxes of Pocky in her arms and six more in Al's. She struggled to open one of the boxes without dropping the others. Al opened one of the boxes he was holding and traded the one for all that were in her arms.

"Why do you need so many of these?" He asked, glancing down at her.

"There's good! When you get your body back I'm gonna shove a whole box of them down your throat." She gave him a wicked grin as she stuck a biscuit stick in her mouth.

"If I even have one…" He whispered to himself, looking away.

"Hmm?" She gave him a quizzical glance.

"Nothing." He shook his head, pushing open the door to Ed's hospital room.

Winry was nowhere to be found but Ed was stretching his arm out and doing different things to test it. Ed turned to them as Al set all the boxes of Pocky on the couch, Cayden plopping down next to them.

"Where's Winry?" Cayden asked, tilting her head a little.

Ed's eyes widen and his mouth dropped open, "How many of those did you get?!"

"A couple. Now are you gonna answer my question?" Cayden closed her eyes, enjoying the tasty biscuits.

"A couple?! How much did you spend?!" Ed shouted, pointing at the pile.

"About 500 cens…what some?" Cayden opened her eyes, raising an eyebrow, somewhat annoyed that Ed was answering her question so she dropped it.

"You spent that much on chocolate biscuits?! Are you crazy?!" Ed shouted, stomping his foot.

"So that's a no?" Cayden questioned, pulling another out of the box and pointing it in his direction before sticking it in her mouth.

"May as well, when I get out of this prison we won't have anywhere to put them…" Ed sighed, putting a hand on his forehead.

"No! You don't get any!" Cayden shouted, covering up the boxes with her body.

"We'll see about that!" Ed laughed, cupping her chin and biting off the end of the biscuit that was hanging out of her mouth.

"Hey! I was eating that!" Cayden growled, a little annoyed.

"Want it back?" Ed teased, pushing part of it out of his mouth.

"No." Cayden gave him a pout as she crossed her arms.

The door opened and Cayden threw her hood over her head. The nurse set a tray down by Ed's bed and nodded to him as she walked out without a word.

"Guess it's time to eat…" Ed sighed as he walked over and sat down, picking up the fork and poking at the food. He looked over his shoulder at Cayden, "Hey, do you want this?"

"No way in hell am I eating that. I don't like hospital food. I'm gonna go get a cheeseburger or something." Cayden smirked at him as she got up and walked to the door.

"No fair!" Ed pouted, anime tears flowing down his cheeks.

Cayden stuck out her tongue and walked out, walking straight into Major Armstrong.

"Major! What are you doing here?" Cayden asked, backing up against the wall.

She glanced over at Ed and Al, who were watching her through the window. Ed had the fork hanging out of his mouth, eyebrows raised in confusion.

"I was just coming to see the Elric brothers, but I would like to ask where are you going?" His mustache moved as he talked, a few sparkles appearing.

"Going to get some food." Cayden gave him a weak nervous smile.

"Why don't I come with you? My treat." He said, grabbing her wrist.

Cayden looked at Ed, eyes wide as she mouthed 'Help me'. Ed just shrugged and continued eating, smirking at her. Cayden glared at him but let out a gasp as Major Armstrong threw her over his shoulder, carrying her down the hallway.

xXxXx

Major Armstrong had left Cayden at the front doors of the hospital, a hamburger in her hands. She pushed the door opened and took a bite of the hamburger as she walked towards the hospital room Ed was in. She opened the door to his room, taking another bite of her hamburger. She met Ed's eyes and glared at him for not stopping Major Armstrong earlier. Cayden waved the burger around in his face before sitting down and sticking out her tongue.

"Meanie." Ed pouted at her playfully before sticking out his tongue in return.

Cayden laughed and crawling over the pile of Pocky boxes over to Al, who was sitting on the floor across from the bed. She tapped on his head, causing him to slowly glance up at her.

"Al, what's wrong?" She laid her chest on the arm of the couch, arms hanging over, butt raised in the air.

Al shook his head, saying nothing.

"Alphonse…I know something's wrong. You can tell me." Cayden said with a smile, placing a hand on his head.

He just looked away, shaking his head again.

"You again?! Evil bastard…" Ed growled causing Cayden and Al to look in his direction.

Cayden covered up her eyes with a huff, "Really Ed? It's just milk…"

"I'm not gonna drink it! It's gross!" He huffed, crossing his arms, "You drink it!"

"Nope. You need it more than I do, shorty." Cayden laughed, remembering her burger and finishing it off.

"Brother…just drink it…you need to take care of your body." Al mumbled, staring at the ground.

"I don't like it! It's not like I'm gonna die if I never drink that stuff!" Ed said, sticking a forkful of whatever the hospital had given him to eat into his mouth.

"Yes, but you'll stay small forever." Cayden smirked, walking over to him and patting his head.

"I'm growing! It may not look like it, but I'm still growing!" Ed grumbled then looked at Al, "You're lucky Al, you don't get called small because you're so big!"

"I DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS BODY!" Al yelled at him, startling them and the confused Winry who had just walked in.

Ed stared at the tray of food in front of him, eyes widening. Cayden put a hand on Ed's shoulder, sitting next to him, face showing none emotions she was now bottling up inside.

Ed slowly looked up at Al, pained look on his face, "I'm sorry Al…you're right…this is my fault. That's why we need to get your body back as soon as possible."

"Is it even possible to get our bodies back?!" Al shouted, causing Cayden to jump up and put herself between them.

"We are trying everything we can, Al. You just have to believe us. We will get you back to normal, no matter what happens." Cayden looked up at him, tears erupting from her eyes.

"Believe you?! What exactly am I supposed to believe?! I'm a soul inside an empty suit of armor!" He yelled at Cayden, "According to Alchemic Theory, human are composed of a physical body, mind, and soul! Memories are nothing but data, it should be possible to recreate them!"

"What are you saying?" Edward looked at his brother, horrified.

"You said there was something you wanted to tell me…but you were too afraid. Is it possible that you wanted to tell me that my soul and memories are fake?! That they were created?!" Al yelled at him again, "Well?! Can you prove that a boy named Alphonse Elric even existed?! Is it possible that everyone is lying to me?!"

Ed slammed his fists on the table, startling Cayden, "So…that's what you kept bottled up…I see…"

Ed slipped on his slippers and walked past his brother out of the room. Winry turned shouting after him. Winry turned, pulling a wrench out of nowhere and hitting Al in the head, startling Colonel Hughes and Lieutenants Ross and Brosh **(is that how his name is spelt?)**.

"You idiot!" Winry yelled, hitting him again, knocking him down.

Cayden stood, fists clenched as she stared at the ground.

"You're so stupid! You have no idea how he feels! The thing he wanted to talk to you about was if you blame him for what happened to you guys!" She slumped to the ground, still hitting him with the wrench, "And then you said that…what moron would risk his life you create a fake little brother? The only thing you guys have left is each other…"

Cayden walked over to the couch, opening the backpack they lay on the ground beside it, pulling out a picture and the little stuffed bear with pink bow from all those years ago. She walked back over to Alphonse, legs weak, falling down beside him.

"R-remember this?" She held the bear out to him, wiping away her tears with her opposite hand.

Then she handed them the picture of her, Winry, Ed, and Al in a watermelon eating contest. She smiled as she remembered it. Cayden stood up, taking the bear from him.

"Now I'm going to talk to your brother." Cayden sighed then looked to Winry, "Keep knocking some sense into him."

Cayden clutched the bear close to her chest as she left the room and walked up the stairs onto the roof. She walked up behind Ed, quietly so he didn't hear her. She hugged him from behind, head resting on his shoulder. She handed him the bear and heard him give a small chuckle.

"Ed?" Cayden and Edward turned around, facing Alphonse.

Ed charged at his brother, aiming a kick for his head. Al dodged it as Ed tried to punch him.

"W-what are you doing, brother?" Al asked, startled.

Ed grabbed a bed sheet off the clothes line and threw it in his face, blocking his face before kicking him in the head and causing him to fall backwards.

"I win!" He said, plopping down across from Al, "That's the first time I ever beat you, huh?"

"…you cheated…" Al mumbled, pulling the sheet from his face.

"Shut up. A win is a win!" Ed huffed, kicking his feet up and down.

Cayden leaned against the railing, shaking her head.

"We got in a lot of fights when we were little." Ed chuckled, closing his eyes.

"Yup. And it was always about something stupid." Al laughed, smiling if he could.

"Yeah, like who got top bunk or fighting toys and candy… I never won any of those…" Ed sighed.

"You also fought about who would marry Winry." Cayden laughed, sitting down next to them.

"What?! I don't remember that at all!" Ed shouted, glancing over to her.

"It did happen, brother, I won that one, but she turned us both down." Al chuckled, looking towards Cayden, "Didn't we ask you too?"

Cayden nodded.

"Didn't you turn us down also?" Al asked.

"Actually no…" Cayden's face flushed bright red.

Ed let out a quiet gasp, eyes widening as he turned to look at her, "What did you say?"

"You don't remember that either?" Al questioned, looking over at him.

"No, for some reason I can't remember either of those times." He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment.

"It was the same day." Cayden grumbled, "I literally walked in on it and Al asked me about the same time you asked Winry."

"And what'd you say?" Ed asked, eyebrows arching.

"I said yes…then Winry talked me out of it. Poor little Al was crushed." Cayden giggled, patting Al's head.

"Crushed? I was devastated!" Al laughed.

"So you think those memories are fake?" Ed questioned, staring up at the sky.

"…I'm sorry…" Al muttered.

"Al, next time something is wrong, tell us." Cayden smiled at him.

"Okay." He said cheerfully.

"We are going to do everything we can to get our bodies back." Ed said with a determined look in his eyes.

"Does that mean you're gonna drink milk?" Cayden teased, laughing.

"…if that's what it takes…I'll try…" He grumbled, rolling his eyes.

Cayden laughed, standing up and stretching before holding out her hands to Ed and Al.

xXxXx

**(A/N: I'm gonna skip the part with King Bradley and go straight to the Rush Valley part)**

Cayden sat as best she could next to Al on the train. She eventually ended up in his lap since she couldn't fit in the seat.

"So what made you guys go see your teacher all of the sudden?" Winry asked, catching Cayden's attention.

"Yeah, why are we going?" Cayden asked, eyebrows rising in question, shuddering when she remembered what they went through the first month in training.

"Two reasons. One, to get stronger. We've been losing a lot of fights and maybe a trip to see her would help that." Ed replied, leaning against the window.

"You're going to get better at fighting? Are you obsessed with it?!" Winry asked, panicked.

"My reasons aren't that simple! I don't know how I can explain it but we need to get stronger on the inside too." Ed said, looking over to Cayden and Al, eyes widening a little when he realized Cayden had made her way into Al's lap and he clenched his teeth together in jealously a little.

Cayden noticed his jaw tighten and gave him a quizzical look that he quickly brushed off, looking away.

"And the other reason?" Winry asked with a huff.

"I want to ask her about transmuting humans…the whole time we were there she never told us anything about the philosopher's stone or human transmutation. The closer we get to finding it some comes up and makes it harder so maybe we can just ask her. We have to ask, even if it means we might get killed." Ed clenched his teeth together, "…get killed…we had short lives didn't we Al…?"

"I wish I could have had a girlfriend before I die…" Al said, trembling.

"We're so screwed…" Cayden said, staring into space, rocking back and forth.

"Well here's something that will cheer you guys up." Winry said as she took out an apple pie.

"Where'd you get that?" Ed asked, leaning forward, eyeing the pie.

"Mr. Hughes's wife gave to me so we could eat it on the train." Winry smiled.

"It's huge…" Cayden said, staring at it.

"Yeah." Winry laughed, handing Cayden and Ed a piece.

Cayden took a bite, savoring the sweet cinnamon and mushy apples. A piece of the crust crumbled off into her lap, making Al laugh as she searched for it.

"This is good." Ed said, glancing at Winry with a smile, "His wife really knows how to cook."

"Yup. She taught me the recipe so I'll make it for you when you get your body back, Al." Winry smiled.

"Yay!" Al cheered, throwing his arms in the air, knocking Cayden out of his lap, "Umm…oops…"

Cayden glared at Al, crossing her arms over her chest. Ed laughed and Cayden punched him in the leg before standing up and jumping up on the seat grabbing Al's head.

"Hey! Gimme back my head!" He shouted, reaching for it.

"No! You made me fall on my butt!" Cayden argued, tapping on his head.

"Umm…Cayden, you might want to give him his head back, people are taking notice…" Ed chuckled as he looked around.

"Fine…but knock me down again and I won't be giving it back!" Cayden huffed, sitting down on Al's knee.

"Understood." Al said, eyeing her closely.

"Anyway, I met Mrs. Hughes and their daughter Elicia. They're so nice." Winry piped up, smiling.

"Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, nice? More like smothery. I never asked him to follow me around all the time." Ed grumbled.

"He's not smothery…well, a little, but he always came to your hospital room to just to talk, no matter how much work he had. He's really nice to us." Cayden smiled, sliding from Al's knee into his lap, "Next time you go over, Winry, I wanna come with you."

"Yeah, we need to do something nice for him when we come back." Ed smiled as he looked out the window.

xXxXx

Cayden sat on Al's shoulders, hands on his head as she watched Winry run from shop to shop, looking at all of the auto-mail accessories and parts. She sighed and hit her head on the back of Al's head then shot up, rubbing her forehead.

"Ow…" She muttered, looking around.

"Be careful, I'm metal, remember?" Al chuckled, looking up at her.

"Don't remind me…" Cayden grumbled, spotting a large crowd, "Hey, what's that?"

"I don't know, let's go check it out." Ed smiled up at her then called to Winry, "Winry, come on, you can look at that stuff later!"

"Aww man! You should have seen the newest model from Gods Studio!" She complained as she walked back to them.

They all walked over to the crowd and made their way through to the front. Cayden grunted as she saw the ugly macho man freak with two auto-mail arms, sitting at the table next to some scrawny twig with a floral patterned shirt.

"Oh what the hell is this shit? Who are these clowns…?" Cayden sighed, leaning against Al's head.

"Are you guys ready for some Machine Arm Wrestling?!" Mr. Twig guy asked the crowd, "Attention all Auto-Mail users! Are you looking to win some serious fast cash?! A mere 10,000 cens to enter and if you can beat the reigning champ, you will walk away with the mountain of money!"

"Alright! Let me at 'im!" Some black haired guy pushed his way past Edward, walking over to the table, "Just got a new model today. And I've been dying to test it!"

Cayden reached into her backpack that was slung over her shoulder and pulled out one of boxes of Pocky she was allowed to take with her. Ed refused to let her take more than seven boxes and made her leave the rest at the hotel. She stuck a biscuit in her mouth and watched the match, slowly nibbling away at the treat.

"Contestants, are you ready?!" Mr. Floral Twig guy asked, placing his hand on top of Macho man and the black haired guy's hands, "FIGHT!"

Macho man instantly took the black haired man down, slamming his arm on the table, causing it to break. Cayden let out a gasp and the biscuit fell out of her mouth and into Al's armor. Cayden grabbed Al's head and dropped it on Ed's causing Ed to look up, startled until he realized Cayden was waist down in Al's armor.

"Cayden! Don't do that it's weird!" Al shouted, trying to pull her out.

"Cayden, get out of Al!" Ed shouted at her, holding up Al's head by the hair.

"Almost got it! Just a little more!" Cayden said, reaching down for the treat, "Al, stop trying to pull me out! I can't even touch the blood rune from here so don't worry about it!"

"That's not what I'm worried about! I can't feel you inside me but it's still weird!" Al complained.

Cayden grabbed hold on the Pocky stick and slowly lifted herself up out of Al's armor, sticking the biscuit back in her mouth she shouted, "Yay!"

Then she met Ed's eyes, "What?"

"You did that for a Pocky stick?!" He asked, staring at her in disbelief.

"Well, duh! What else would I do it for?" Cayden asked, eyebrow rising, "These things are good!"

Ed stayed silent and turned back to the fight, staring at the black haired guy get overwhelmed with engineers.

Twig guy turned and faced the crowd, "So, who's up next?" He spotted Al, "What about you? Guy with the pretty little girl on his shoulders! What about it? Care to try?!"

"Me?! No, no thank you!" Al said, putting up his hand, defensively.

"Well then, what about this young man with the auto-mail arm?" He asked, a hand on his chin, "Wait, my bad! What am I thinking? A little boy like you can't possibly offer any competition! Anyone else wanna try?"

Ed was close to snapping and quickly walked over to the table, slamming his hands on it.

"Oh? Half-pint is serious? This should be interesting…" Twig man said, shocked.

"Ed! You can't do this! You don't stand a chance!" Winry shouted to him and it only seemed to make him angrier.

Cayden sighed, resting her arms and head on Al's head, "What the hell does he think he's doing…?"

"What a joke! There's too much a difference in power!" Some guy with a bandana wrapped around his head was laughing.

"That kid's gonna get his entire shoulder ripped off! I can't wait to see this!" Some with his hair tied back laughed with the bandana guy.

Cayden glared at them and threw her empty Pocky box at them. Ed grabbed hold of Macho man's hand as twig guy announced the match to begin. Ed slammed macho man's arm on the table, shattering it. Everyone in the crowds eyes widened except Cayden's and Al's of course.

"W-what?" Macho man questioned, staring at the remains of his auto-mail.

"Sorry about that. Looks like the scrap collector is gonna be real busy today." Ed smirked, holding up the broken arm.

Cayden sighed, shaking her head as Winry asked, "How'd he do that?"

"He used Alchemy to change that guy's arm into a weaker substance." Al whispered into Winry's ear.

"That's cheating!" Winry said, disapproval in her voice.

Ed opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by some guy walking up to him and saying, "I've ever seen that type of auto-mail around here!"

He picked up Ed's arm and started pointing at different parts, "Look at the intricacy of the metalwork!"

"I made it!" Winry bragged to the engineers.

"What? You're the designer? Great work!" one of them said turning to her.

"Well this took a turn for the worst…" Cayden muttered, looking around, spotting something moving in a nearby alleyway, "Hey, Al, let me down."

"What? You might get lost in the crowd." Al said, trying to reason a little.

"If shrimpy doesn't get lost, I won't I'm taller than he is anyway." Cayden laughed, jumping off Al's back, "I'll be back."

Cayden made her way through the crowd surrounding them and ran over to the alleyway. She placed her hand against the wall and looked around, spotting a little chocolate colored dog with a broken auto-mail hind-leg.

"Oh, you poor thing…" She whispered as kneel down, holding her hand out to it.

The little puppy limped over to her and she picked it up, scratching it behind the ear. She held the puppy up and looked at its auto-mail leg. The wires that connected the nerves were still intact, only the metal was broken.

"Here, I'll fix it." She smiled at the puppy as it looked at her with wide eyes.

Cayden placed the puppy down and clapped her hands, placing them on the puppy's leg, blue flashes of light coming from her hands.

"There." She patted the puppy on the head as it looked at it leg and moved it around.

The puppy backed away and started running in a circle, barking happily. Cayden laughed and stood up, turning she looked for Al, Ed, and Winry. The little puppy barked causing her to turn around and kneel back down.

"Do you not have an owner?" Cayden asked even though she knew the puppy couldn't answer.

She lifted up the puppy and noticed the auto-mail leg was shorter than the other.

"I'll take you to Winry, she'll get you a new leg." Cayden smiled, standing up, puppy in her arms.

Cayden walked back to Al, freezing when she saw that the engineers had removed Ed's clothes to see his auto-mail better. Cayden couldn't stop herself and she busted out laughing, causing Ed to blush.

"Everyone here really does like auto-mail." Winry laughed, hands on her hips.

"That's not an excuse to strip me to my underwear in public!" Ed yelled at her, causing Cayden to laugh again.

**(A/N: I'll continue the rest of this in the next chapter. If any of you have ideas on how to make it work for Al, let me know because I got nothing but this doesn't mean that Al confesses or Cayden falls for Al. Thanks for reading ^-^)**


	12. Chapter 10

Ed reached into his front pockets, eyes widening, "Where is it?"

"What's wrong?" Winry asked, eyebrow rising.

"It's gone…the thing that proves I'm a State Alchemist…my pocket watch is gone!" He panicked, pulling the insides of his pockets out.

"What?!" Al asked, panicking with him.

"Really Ed? How can you be so careless?" Cayden asked, holding the puppy over her head as she started talking like a baby to it.

"Says the girl who has a puppy!" Ed growled, turning away, realization hitting him the face as he slowly turned back, "Where the hell did you get a dog at?!"

"I found it in an alley while you were busy stripping." Cayden muttered.

"Go put it back! We need to find my watch!" Ed yelled at her.

"But it's just a puppy! And I was hoping Winry could fix its leg! This one needs adjusting." Cayden growled at Ed, turning away from him.

"My watch is more important!" Ed argued, throwing his arms in the air.

"You say your watch? And it's missing?" An engineer from a nearby stand asked, looking up from his work.

"Yeah. Know who took it?" Ed asked, walking up to the engineer and his friend.

"Sounds like it could be Paninya." The engineer said, "She a pickpocket that targets tourists."

"What?!" Ed and Al asked, panicking again.

"My Pocky!" Cayden shouted, reaching into the bag, giving a sigh of relief when she counted all six of the remaining.

"Seriously?!" Ed glared at her.

Cayden grunted and turned, giving the puppy to Winry, "Do you think you could fix…" She paused lifting up puppy to see its gender, "Her leg? I need to help shorty find his watch."

"Uh…sure." Winry starred down at the little pup in her arms.

"Oh and could you hold on to these?" Cayden asked, motioning to her cloak and backpack.

"Uh, sure, I guess…" Winry kept her eyes on the dog as Cayden took out one of the boxes of Pocky and stuffed her clock into the bag.

Cayden handed the bag to Winry and glanced over her shoulder instantly seeing Ed with his arm was turned into a blade and that he was holding it up to the engineers necks.

"Ed…really?" Cayden sighed, walking up and placing a hand on his shoulder, "Okay, so where is this pickpocket?"

"She sells all her stuff to Glotz pawn shop. You might want to check there! It's in the west alley!" One of the engineers said, hands above his head.

"Thanks!" Cayden smiled, pulling Ed by his braid away from the engineers.

"Let's go get this pickpocket!" Ed shouted, taking off.

"Wrong way!" Cayden shouted after him, sighing as he ran past her in the other direction.

"We better go after him before he does something stupid." Al sighed, glancing in the direction his brother ran.

"I think it's a little too late for that…" Cayden moaned as she heard something slam one street over.

"Winry, stay here, we'll be back!" Al said, running after his brother, dragging Cayden with him.

xXxXx

**(Skipped up to them running to catch the train to Dublith. Sorry if any of you wanted me to add that part) **

"The train's leaving!" Al shouted as the group ran towards it.

"Run faster!" Cayden shouted, glancing back at him, eyes widening a bit, "What about Kasey?!"

"Who?!" Ed asked, sprinting to catch up to her.

"The puppy!" Cayden said as Al passed her, leaping onto the train.

"Forget about the puppy! We don't have any use for it!" Ed sighed as he threw his suitcase to Al, looking back to Winry, "Be careful! And you better train hard!"

Cayden jumped onto the back of the train, Al grabbing her around the waist so she wouldn't fall back. Ed leapt off the docking station and grabbed onto the rail, Cayden and Al helping him over.

Ed turned and yelled to Winry, "Make sure you call Granny! She's probably worried! And make sure you steal some of that old guy's secrets so you can make a better one of these!"

Winry and Paninya waved to them, Winry yelling, "You can count on it!"

"Winry, can you take care of Kasey for me?" Cayden shouted as she waved back, receiving a nod in return.

Cayden laughed and sat down as the train station faded from view, glaring at Ed as he sat down next to her.

"What?" He smirked, putting his hands behind his head.

"You made me leave my puppy…" Cayden growled, crossing her arms and looking away.

"We can't keep any animals with us! Why can't you two understand that?!" Ed moaned.

"Because we aren't cold-hearted like you!" Cayden shot at him.

"I'm not cold-hearted! I just don't want the animals to get hurt!" Ed shouted, waving his arms around.

"Sure you aren't…just admit it, you don't like animals!" Cayden grumbled, refusing to look at him.

"I kept you, didn't I?" Ed laughed, wrapping his arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to him.

"Are you calling me an animal?!" Cayden growled, pushing away from him.

"Yeah. You could say that." Ed continued laughing.

"Brother, you're being mean." Al warned him.

"I'm just joking." Ed muttered, looking away.

"How far are we from Dublith?" Cayden asked, standing up and walking over to stand by Al.

"Not far, should take a few hours though…" Ed sighed, turning and lying on his side, "Well I'm tired, so I'm going to sleep…"

"I would sleep, but I don't want Al to be awake by himself." Cayden smiled, tilting her head.

"Cayden, if you're tired, you can sleep. I don't mind being awake. You need to rest anyway." Al said, probably smiling if he could.

"Al…" Cayden tried arguing.

"Please? If you're tired, please rest." Al insisted, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Alphon-" Ed cut her off, covering her mouth with his hand as he pulled her down, holding her against his chest.

"Just shut up already…" Ed grumbled, closing his eyes.

xXxXx

Cayden slowly opened her eyes, feeling something around her waist. She made a loud squeak when she realized she was nose-to-nose with Ed. He was still asleep, bangs covering his face. Cayden tried pushing away and it only caused him to pull her back, closer than before, if that's possible.

"Alphonse!" Cayden whispered, catching his attention, "Help!"

"What the-?" Al asked, jumping up.

"Just help me!" Cayden hissed, a panicked look crossing her face as Ed moaned.

"Umm…uh…" Al looked around, spotting Dublith, he then looked and Cayden, pointing to the town.

"Don't you dare, Alphonse Elric! If you wake him up, I will kill you!" She growled, trying to push away from Ed.

"Well what am I supposed to do?!" Al whispered.

"Would you two shut up?! I'm trying to sleep here!" Ed grumbled, opening one eye.

"You're up!" Cayden shouted, pushing away and grabbing her bag, hitting him in the head.

"Ouch…damn, what's wrong with you?!" Ed growled, shooting up, holding his head.

"You were holding me while we were sleeping! And I was then far from you!" Cayden growled, holding up her hand, showing him the amount of space, "Don't do that ever again! It's weird!"

"I was hoping you wouldn't have your stupid dreams where you relive what we did! I didn't realize we would end up like that!" Ed growled through his teeth, turning away from her, "All I did was try to help…see if maybe you could get some rest for once instead of waking up and screaming and trying to go back to sleep and starting the vicious cycle all over! It's my fault for dragging you into this and it's my fault Al is stuck the way he is! And everything that's going on is starting to make me think that you shouldn't come with us anymore!"

"Brother!" Al warned seeing Cayden bring her knees to her chest, staring at him.

The train slowly pulled into the station and Ed stood up, refusing to look at Cayden as he passed her. Al knelt beside Cayden, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on, we need to go." Al murmured in her ear.

"Go…and take these with you…" Cayden said, voice having no emotion as she handed Al her pack, waist bag, and cloak.

"Cayden…come on. Brother didn't mean that…it just…slipped out. He cares about you and whatever you said, sent him over the edge for some reason…" Al said, standing up, looking over to his brother who was leaning against a pillar.

Cayden stayed silent and stood up with a heavy sigh. Taking her pack from Al, opening it and taking out the bear.

"Take everything to Teacher's place…I'm going for a walk…" Cayden muttered, handing him the pack again and jumping off the train, casting a glance at Ed.

"Where?" Al questioned as he stepped beside her.

"The lake..." Cayden smirked as she looked around, one hand in her pocket, the other clutching the bear to her chest.

Al sighed, shaking his head, "Fine, but you better be back there in 15-20 minutes or I'm coming after you…"

"Whatever…" Cayden muttered as she walked towards the lake, head down.

xXxXx

"Maybe it would make it easier on them if I wasn't here…" Cayden mumbled to herself as she sat on the lake shore, knees up to her chest and feet in the water, "I'm useless to them anyway…"

"Miss? Is something wrong?" A little boy ran up to her.

He looked something like Alphonse when he was little, except his hair is black and his eyes are green.

"No, everything's fine." Cayden smiled at him.

"Are you sure? You looked upset." The boy crossed his hands behind his back and started rocking on his feet.

"Well, something happened and I'm upset about what was said." Cayden gave him a weak smile.

"Do ya wanna talk about it?" The boy asked, sitting beside her, "You don't have to if you don't wanna, but you should let people know about your feelings or you might explode."

"Explode?" Cayden questioned, leaning back on her hands.

"Yeah, my older brother said sometimes people explode on you when they keep their feelings hidden for so long." The little boy giggled, "I didn't really believe him, but I don't want to take any chances, so I ask people whenever they look upset."

Cayden laughed, "You know, you remind me of someone."

"Who?" He questioned.

"A little boy I knew a long time ago. I still know him and I'm with him a lot…but he changed, something bad happened and he's not the same anymore." Cayden stared at her feet and sighed.

"What happened?" The little boy asked.

"Well, before I tell you that, what's your name?" Cayden smiled.

"Kevin." He replied, smiling back.

"Well, Kevin, you see that island out there." Cayden pointed over to Yock Island, "I had to survive there for a month with that little boy and his brother. Lemme tell you, that was no picnic. Some maniac chased us at night and during the day we had to hunt for food, but I was fine with it, you know why? Those boys were like family…no they are family…"

The boy listen entensly, eyes set on Yock Island.

"My parents were soldiers and they were in the war. They were called to warzone when I was four. I didn't understand why they left back then, but I was okay for awhile until…we got news they were dead. Well, during that time I lived with those boys and we practiced Alchemy…" Cayden informed him.

"You know Alchemy?" Kevin asked, eyes wide.

"Yeah, but my Alchemy is different from other styles. I don't need a transmutation circle." Cayden smiled at him, ruffling his hair.

"Like Mrs. Curtis?" Kevin asked, looking up at her.

"Yeah. Actually, she's my teacher, but she didn't teach me how to transmute without a circle…uh…someone else did. But, back to the story, I lived with those boys and we practiced Alchemy. Well, while we were out playing, their mother collasped and we found her on the kitchen floor. She had gotten sick and later died…it was like losing my parents twice."

"What about their father?"

"He…he walked out on them when they were really little…I don't know the guy, all I know is if he was there, those same boys wouldn't be like they are now…" Cayden looked down at her feet, a sad expression on her face.

"I'm sorry…" Kevin looked down with a guilty look, thinking he upset her more.

"It's fine." Cayden smiled at him.

"Okay, well what's wrong now?" Kevin asked, looking back up at her.

"I said something and it caused the oldest of those two boys to snap. I have these really bad nightmares and its always the same one, over and over. He did something to see if I would still have them and what he did I wasn't okay with because of how we ended up in the end. I should be grateful…that was the first time I haven't had that stupid dream…but what he said…it hurt…" Cayden sighed, looking into the sky.

"What did he say?" Kevin gave her a concerned look.

"I said I didn't want her to come with us anymore…" a voice said from behind them causing both of them to whip their heads around to see Ed.

"Yeah. That…" Cayden grumbled, refusing to look at Ed, "How long have you been there?"

"Just got here…" He signed, glancing at Kevin, who had jumped up and put himself between Ed and Cayden.

"Go away! She's been though enough and doesn't need you to add to it!" Kevin yelled at Ed, causing Cayden to laugh.

"Watch it, Kevin, shorty there can do Alchemy like I can." Cayden giggled when she saw Ed's face, it was obvious he was trying not to lash out about the short comment.

Cayden stood up, bear in hands and walked over to the door, both boys following her.

"It's that stupid island that made me realize something. I have two of the best people in the world at my sides and I nothing can change my mind about that." Cayden spun on her heel and faced Ed, "But I do need to thank you…first time I could really sleep in awhile."

He stayed silent and Cayden bit her lip then hugged him, causing him to let out a small startled gasp, slowly wrapping his arms around her, hugging her back.

"Yay! Everything's back to normal!" Kevin said, jumping up and down.

"Not quite." Cayden laughed, pushing away from Ed.

"Hmm…?" Kevin and Ed both questioned.

Cayden smirked at Ed then pushed him off the dock into the water.

"There. Everything's perfect again." Cayden smiled, kneeling down and laughing as Ed came back to the surface, spitting out water.

"What was that for?!" Ed shouted at her.

"Looked like you could use a swim." Cayden laughed, placing her bear down.

"Well you do too!" Ed yelled as he grabbed her ankle and pulled her off the dock into the water.

Cayden let out a scream that was cut off when she hit the water. She grabbed Ed's leg and pulled him under then went back to the surface, grabbing onto the dock. Lifting herself up she saw a couple bubbles rise to the surface.

"Can he swim?" Kevin asked, concerned plastered to his face.

"Yeah…shit! His auto-mail weighs him down!" Cayden shouted, diving into the water, only to be lifted back up by Ed.

"You're alive!" Kevin and Cayden shouted at them same time.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Ed asked, looking at them confused.

"Your auto-mail weighs you down and I saw bubbles…I thought you couldn't get back up in time to not drown." Cayden said, wrapping her arms around his neck and legs around his waist.

"It was only a few seconds though…" Ed laughed at her, holding her against him, one hand around her waist and one behind her head.

"I don't care. A few seconds or not don't do that again." Cayden whispered in his ear.

"Okay, what am I allowed to do and not do?" Ed smirked as he went around the dock to the shore.

"You aren't allowed to die. You aren't allowed to leave me. And you aren't allowed to…um…uh…I don't know, but when I come up with another thing I'll tell you." Cayden laughed, pulling the hair tie out of his head, causing his wet hair to come out of its braid.

"What'd ya do that for?" He grumbled, putting her down when they got to the shore, Kevin running up to them, Cayden's bear in his hands.

"Cause I can…" Cayden smiled, clapping her hands and placing them on her clothes, drying them.

"Here miss. It's your bear." Kevin handed the bear out to her.

"Thank you, Kevin." Cayden smiled, ruffling his hair.

"You're welcome, but I really need to get back to my mom." Kevin smiled back before he ran off waving.

"Can I have my hair tie back?" Ed questioned, watching Kevin go, clapping his hands and placing them on his clothes, drying them like Cayden did.

"Nope." Cayden smirked, walking away, "Where's Al?"

"Over there." Ed said, pointing over to a little coffee shop, "Now gimme back my hair tie!"

"Can I braid your hair?" Cayden turned to him, the question catching him off guard.

"Uh…I guess…" He said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Yay! Now carry me!" Cayden smiled, running and jumping on his back, Ed grabbing her thighs to keep her up so she didn't fall backwards.

"What?! I thought you wanted to braid my hair! Why do I have to carry you?!" Ed asked, looking out of the corners of his eyes at her.

"I'm going to braid your hair while you carry me." Cayden smirked, gathering up his hair.

"Why?" He asked, sighing.

"I don't feel like walking." Cayden giggled, braiding his hair.

"That's no excuse!" Ed argued.

"I don't care, keep walking!" Cayden growled, hitting him in the back of the head.

**(A/N: I felt like I should add this now instead of making you guys wait for me to get out my handy-dandy manga and start writing again ^-^ I hope you enjoyed this chapter and all I want to say until the next chapter is Neko-chan, somehow you knew what I was planning XD Next time i update i will try to put up two chapters for you guys and i apologize for any grammar mistakes or misspellings so far)**


	13. Chapter 11

Ed, Al, and Cayden stood in front of a shop with a large sign that says Meat.

"Hopefully Teacher isn't home…" Ed said, shaking.

"Yeah…" Al muttered as Cayden spun in circles in front of them.

"You know, you're really childish." Ed grumbled, causing her to stop and stick out her tongue.

"Hi! Can I help you?" Someone shouted behind Ed and Al, causing them to jump and fall on the ground, "Please come in and- Edward? Is that you? It's been awhile!"

"Mason!" Cayden said, jumping on him and hugging him.

"Hey, Cayden, how ya been?" He asked, ruffling her hair with his one free hand.

"Fine, just dealing with these two." Cayden smiled, spinning in at circle again.

"I see you're still with them even at this age." Mason smiled at her.

"I'm only fourteen!" Cayden laughed, turning to help Al up, "I have my reasons for staying."

"I hope you aren't planning on marrying either of them, they're trouble makers!" Mason laughed, causing Cayden to blush.

Mason turned to Ed, patting his head, "You've gotten so big!"

"Big? He looks like he shrunk!" Cayden whispered to Al, causing him to laugh and receive a death glare from Ed.

"Who's your friend in the armor?" Mason asked, turning to Al.

"It's me Alphonse." Al said.

"You've gotten really big…" Mason said, making his way to the door.

Al rubbed the back of his head and Cayden took his other hand in hers.

"You guys came to see Izumi, right?" Mason asked, looking back at them, "Wait a sec and I'll get her. You guys timed it perfectly, she just got back from a trip."

Mason walked inside, leaving the brothers and Cayden alone.

"We just had to stop at Rush Valley, didn't we…?" Ed grumbled, staring at the ground.

"If we didn't go to Rush Valley, I never would have found Kasey!" Cayden smiled widely at him.

"You can't keep that dog…we don't have anywhere to put it. It's better off with Winry and Mr. Garfiel." Ed sighed, covering his eyes with his hand.

"Since when do you get to decide?!" Cayden asked, hands on her hips.

"I'm the oldest, so I'm the leader of…whatever it is we can call this." Ed smirked.

"You're only older by 5 months!" Cayden argued as a big muscled man walked out of the shop, bloody knife in hand.

Ed and Al stepped back a bit as he glared at Edward, "Ed…right?"

Ed gave a nervous nod and the man grabbed onto the top of his head, ruffing his head.

"Good to see you. You've gotten big." He said, looking over to Al, "Who's this?"

"I-It's me, Alphonse. Good to see you again." Al said, placing a hand on his chest plate.

"I see…you've gotten really big." He said, patting Al's head.

He turned to Cayden, who was rocking back and forth on her heels, looking up at him.

"If you two are here, that means this young girl is Cayden." He stared down at her.

"Sig!" Cayden said, hugging him, getting strange looks from Ed and Al.

"It's good to see you Cayden." He smiled at her.

"He smiled! He actually smiled!" Ed whispered to Al, getting a death glare from Sig.

"So why are you guys here?" Sig asked, hands on his hips.

"We've come to see our Teacher. How is she?" Cayden asked, skipping to catch up to Sid, leaving Al to continue to carry her pack.

"Considering her condition, she's not so bad." He informed her, leaning against an open window, "Hey, Izumi, the Elric boys and Cayden are here."

Cayden could hear a feminine voice say, "I'll be out in a minute."

"Can you get up?" Sid asked.

"Yeah, I feel better today." The voice said again.

Cayden shot Ed a glance and moved away from the door just before it flew open and a foot sent Ed flying. Al jumped back and pressed up against the house while Cayden examined the line of destruction that kick had caused Ed's body to do.

"Well, if it isn't my fool of an apprentice. I hear a lot of humors about you, even all the way back here." Izumi growled, "You've stooped so low as to become a dog of the military, have you…? And who are you in the armor?"

"It's me, Alphonse." Al said, shaking.

"Al! You've gotten so big!" Izumi smiled, holding her hand out to him.

He took it, saying, "Teacher, you haven't changed at-…"

Izumi flipped him over on his back as he finished his sentence, "…all."

"You let yourselves get weak…" She growled, looking over to Cayden, "Ah…Cayden."

"Hello, Teacher." Cayden smiled and rubbed the back of her head.

"Been awhile." Izumi smiled, pulling Cayden in for a hug.

"Y-Yeah…it has been…" Cayden flinched as Izumi hugged her tighter.

Cayden's eyes widened a bit and she smirked as she felt Izumi's muscles tighten. Jumping away from Izumi, she blocked a nicely thrown kick to her face.

"Go to know not all of my apprentices have gotten wea-…" Izumi threw up blood on the last word, startling everyone.

Sig walked up with a bottle of pills, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Here are you pills, dear. I told you not to strain yourself."

"Oh, honey, what would I do without you?" Izumi said, hugging her husband.

"Come on now, don't talk like that…" Sig murmured.

"Honey!" Izumi said, compassion in her voice.

Cayden shot a glance at Ed and pretended to gag, causing him to laugh.

"I think we should maybe start over…?" Al asked, looking to Ed and Cayden.

"Yeah, that would be great." Cayden muttered, placing her hands on her hips.

"N-Nice to see you guys again…" Ed said, giving a nervous wave.

"Yup, welcome back!" Izumi said, hitting him on the back.

xXxXx

Cayden sat at the kitchen table, drinking a glass of tea.

"The Philosopher's Stone?" Izumi asked, hand on her chin.

"Yeah. We wondered if you knew anything about it." Cayden informed her, placing the cup on the table.

"Never had any interest. Why would you want to research something like that?" Izumi asked.

"Just out of curiosity!" Ed said, shaking.

"…Philosopher's Stone…now that I think about it, didn't that one alchemist know a lot about the stone…?" Sig asked, looking down at Izumi, causing Cayden to raise an eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah, that guy! Now, what was his name…wasn't it Hohenheim?" Izumi questioned, closing her eyes.

Ed and Al leaned forward in sudden interest and Cayden looked at them confused.

"What was he like?! Was he tall with blonde hair, glasses, and a beard?" Al asked.

"I couldn't tell how old he was…just that he was good looking…" Izumi informed them, hand on her cheek.

Sig was fuming and Izumi slapped him on the arm, saying, "Oh, come on, you're way better looking than he was!"

"So he's alive…?" Al questioned, looking down.

"Who is this guy? Why does it seem like you two know him and I'm clueless?" Cayden asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned back in her chair.

"…He's…our father…" Al informed her, glancing in her direction.

Cayden's eyes widen and she sat up straight in her chair, about to say something, but was interrupted by Izumi, "The guy who left you guys all those years ago? Perfect! He might still be in Cent-"

Ed cut her off, fists clenched, "That guy! That guy is the last person I want to ask for help!"

"W-What did he say about it?" Al asked.

"Said something about his lifelong dream was coming true…seemed happy about it…" Izumi said, trying to remember.

Cayden reached into her pack, pulling out a box of Pocky. She pulled out one of the sticks and leaned over to Ed, shoving it in his mouth.

"What the hell?" He growled, taking it out of his mouth.

"You need cheering up." Cayden smiled, standing up and spinning in a circle, arms out like an airplane, "Pocky always cheers me up, so maybe it will cheer you up."

Ed laughed and grabbed her wrist, pulling her in for a hug, whispering in her, "Thanks."

"Uh…you're welcome…" She said, face flushing.

xXxXx

"Why don't you guys show me how much you've improved with your alchemy?" Izumi smiled, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, okay. I'll go first?" Al questioned, looking to Cayden and Ed.

Cayden nodded and Ed said, "Yeah, but I'm next!"

Al laughed and kneeled down, drawing a transmutation circle, transmuting a wooden horse.

"You've gotten faster and more accurate." Izumi leaned down, examining Al's horse.

"My turn!" Ed said, point to himself.

He clapped his hands and Cayden noticed Izumi's eyes widen, but she dismissed it. Ed placed his hands on the ground and transmuted a Pegasus with really bad style.

"You need to really work on your detail…" Cayden sighed, clapping her hands and making the Pegasus more colorful and stylish.

"There." She smirked, pointing a thumb at the now rainbow colored pegasus.

"Now you made it look weird!" Ed argued, "It was fine the way it was!"

"No, it wasn't! You have no taste!" Cayden laughed, leaning against the horse, "Yeah, it's not my style either, but it looks better than the way you had it."

"She has a point, brother." Al laughed.

"You have a problem with my style too?!" Ed shouted, crossing his arms.

"You have no style!" Cayden laughed, shaking her head.

"You two can transmute with a circle…?" Izumi asked.

"Uh…yeah." Cayden said, glancing to Ed.

Al looked at Izumi, confused.

"Don't lie to me. You've seen that thing, haven't you?" Izumi asked.

"Wha-" Cayden began.

"You two saw it, didn't you?" Izumi growled, cutting her off.

"…yes…we did…" Ed murmured, head down.

"Should have expected that from a genius State Alchemist at the age the age of 15." Izumi sighed, placing a hand on her hip.

"No, I just saw that thing…" Ed said then looked up, horrified, "Teacher…you mean you've…?"

"Mrs. Curtis!" A shout came from behind them, causing Cayden to look over her shoulder.

A group of kids came running towards them, "Mrs…"

They saw Sig and made a large detour around him, causing Cayden to giggle. She turned to Al as Izumi and the kids started talking.

"I feel bad for Sig. Little kids avoid him because of how he looks…" She sighed, crossing her arms.

"He can't help it. He's really nice but he looks scary." Al agreed.

"Yeah…" Cayden cast a look over her shoulder at Sig and Mason walking back to the shop and out of the corner of her eye she saw a little girl with a cat in her arms, "Huh…?"

"Mrs. Curtis…? Chiko won't move. Please fix her…" The little girl asked, holding Chiko out to Izumi.

Cayden let out a pained gasp and covered her mouth, glancing up at Al when he put a hand on her shoulder.

Izumi took Chiko from the girl and explained, "She's dead, Menny. I can't fix her, I'm sorry…"

"But…you can fix anything, can't you?" Menny asked, hope in her eyes.

"No, honey, I can fix some things, but fixing Chiko is something I can't fix. A life is not an object and I'm not God. Chiko had a life, just like you do…but Chiko's life has stopped and she can't come back…" Izumi sighed, looking down at the tiny cat in her arms.

"B-But…I don't understand…she was fine…until yesterday…" Menny began to cry.

"I can't bring her back…but I can help you build a grave…would you like me too?" Izumi asked, grabbing hold of one of Menny's hands.

She gave a nod, wiping away her tears. Cayden walked up to her, kneeling down beside Izumi.

"I'll help too." She smiled, placing a hand on Menny's shoulder.

"O-Okay…t-thank you…" Menny rubbed her eyes.

xXxXx

Izumi waved to Menny as she ran back to her mother after they helped bury Chiko.

"It's hard to explain death to a child…" Izumi sighed, watching Menny go.

"Teacher…have you ever wanted to bring someone back?" Ed asked.

"Yes…" Her voice drifted off and everyone was silent until she spoke again, "Ed…are you glad that you became a dog of the military?"

Ed stayed silent then looked at the ground, "…I don't know when they'll command me to become a human weapon…I'm scared fo doing that…"

"So you joined the military because you needed the power? Didn't you?" Izumi said, back turned.

"There is something I have to do." Ed said, receiving a kick to the face from Izumi.

Cayden let out a squeak and backed up a bit.

"You little brat! Don't be so arrogant when you disobeyed my teachings!" She growled then looked to Al, "Inside that armor…you're empty, aren't you, Al? And Ed, you're using auto-mail, aren't you?"

"How…?" Cayden began kneeling next to Ed and Al.

"How did I know? I felt it earlier when I threw him! And Ed's footsteps sound different! Did you think I wouldn't notice? Don't insult me like that you fools…what happened to you? Tell me everything." She growled.

xXxXx

Everyone in the shop was silent after Ed had explained to Izumi what happened.

Izumi sighed, "…down the road about three blocks…" She stood up, cracking her knuckles, "…A COFFIN STORE! GO AND BUY THREE IN YOUR SIZE! …All jokes aside…I told you to stay away from Human Transmutation…so it seems that the student makes the same mistake as the teacher…"

"Wait…so you've…?" Ed questioned.

"It took…some of my insides…you guys really are stupid…" Izumi sighed, "It must have been tough…but what I want to know is why Cayden isn't effected like you two…seems like nothing happened to her…"

"I can't sleep…without reliving it over…" Cayden muttered, leaning back in her chair, "I got off better then thay did…but we brought this on ourselves."

"You morons…" Izumi sighed, pulling them all into a hug, "You three are expelled…I didn't teach you so you could end up like this…"

Al pushed away to look at her, "But Teacher!"

"Al…no…" Cayden glanced at him and shook her head.

"The trains are still running…go home…" Izumi mummled, leading them to the door.

"Thank you…for everything…" Ed said, staring at the ground.

xXxXx

Cayden walked next to Al, hands in her pockets, drowning out everything around them, even Sig. She felt like she was losing her mother once again. She looked up and noticed Ed had stopped.

"Why did we come here to begin with?" Ed said, "We are so stupid!"

"What? I'm confused…" Cayden said, glancing between Ed and Al.

"Weren't you listening? We aren't in an apprentice-master relationship so we can talk to her like friends. We have to go back!" Ed said as he and Al sprinted back towards the shop leaving Cayden standing next to Sig.

"I guess we're staying?" She questioned, looking up at Sig.

"Guess so. I hope she doesn't kill them when theet there…" He smiled, "We should probably go see."

"Yup." Cayden smiled, walking back to the shop, Sig behind her.

xXxXx

"Al when you were transmuted, you saw the truth, didn't you?" Cayden could hear Izumi's voice as she arrived at the backdoor.

"Uh, no. I have no idea what this 'truth' is." Al informed her, glancing at Cayden as she walked in and dropped her backpack in the nearest chair before coming over and sitting on the counter.

"Hmm…maybe the shock wiped your memory…we have to get your memory back, after all he had his entire body taken, just think about what he could have seen." Izmui glanced at Cayden then back to Ed and Al.

"Oh yeah, the 'toll', I had my leg taken and Al had his whole body taken, he must have been the closest to the truth." Ed said, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"So if I remember, we'll have the answer!?" Al asked.

"But the memory of that thing…" Izumi said, placing a hand on her chin.

"Yeah, that thing…" Ed muttered.

"What thing? Is it that bad?" Al asked, panic in his voice.

"It's not bad…it's more like…weird. Kinda looks like this…" Izumi said, waving her arms around.

"Yeah, really weird. Like this." Ed copied her, causing Cayden to laugh.

"No, you got it all wrong, it was like this." Cayden began doing what they were doing.

"We were doing the same thing!" Ed argued.

"No, you were doing it wrong. Teacher did it right though." Cayden stuck her tongue out.

"I did the same thing she did!" Ed kept arguing.

"No, you weren't! You had the size all wrong, but I guess you can't help that, you're the size of a bean." Cayden teased.

"Don't call me small!" Ed shouted.

"I didn't, I called you a bean." Cayden laughed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Same thing!"

"No it isn't!"

"Yes, it is!"

"Nope!"

"Yes!"

"Shut up!" Izumi yelled, "You two are so childish! Now help me with dinner!"

Cayden and Ed shared a glance then said, "Yes ma'am!"

xXxXx

"What's the matter, brother? Throw your back out?" Al asked when he saw Ed's face, causing Cayden and Izumi to glance in his direction.

"I forgot about this years assessment!" Ed said, panic in his voice.

"You what?!" Cayden asked, jumping up, "You are so stupid!"

"You could have help remind me!" Ed shouted at her.

"That's not my job." Cayden stuck her tongue out.

"Before you two start your childish bickering, could you please tell me what you're talking about." Izumi grumbled, crossing her arms.

"The annual assessment for State Alchemists. Have to take one every year or they take your license. We've been so busy lately, I've forgotten! This isn't good…"

"Great! You can use the opportunity to quit being a dog of the military. I'll go ahead and tell them you aren't coming." Izumi said, picking up the phone and dialing a number.

"No! Stop! I've been meaning to go to headquarters anyway!" Ed said, rushing around and throwing his things in his suit case.

"Wait, brother, South HQ is only two stations away by train." Al informed him.

"Thanks, Al." Ed siad as he pulled on his jacket.

"What about your report?" Cayden asked, getting out of her chair and walking over to the counter, grabbing an apple from a basket.

"I'll whip something up on the train." Ed said, glancing over his shoulder at her.

"Be careful." Cayden said, tossing the apple to him.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll only be gone two to three days." He rolled his eyes, catching the apple, "Well…I gotta go."

"Is he always in a rush like that?" Izumi asked, eyebrows rising.

"Yeah…" Cayden grumbled, grabbing an orange and beginning to peel it.

"Someone should really look after him, I'll go! See ya later, guys!" Al said, rushing to the door.

"Not so fast!" Izumi said, grabbing him by the hair on his helmet and cracking her fingers, "You're gonna stay here and spar with me."

Cayden laughed, shaking her head as she swept the peel into the trashcan on the other side of the counter.

"You too, missy!" Izumi smiled at her evilly.

"No, I'm eating." Cayden smirked, taking a bit of one of the orange slices.

"You should respect your Teacher!" Izumi growled, throwing a knife in Cayden's direction.

Cayden caught it between her fingers, casually taking another bite of the orange before throwing it back, "Expelled, remember?"

"True, true." Izumi said, placing the knife on the counter, "Well, help me make lunch."

"Kay." Cayden said, standing up straight and placing what was left of the orange on in a papertowel for later.


	14. Chapter 12

"Cayden, can you get me a pork tenderloin?" Sig asked, glancing over at the girl who was sharpening knifes.

"Sure thing, Sig!" Cayden jumped up, placing the knife in one of the holders and skipped over to the meat freezer. **(I don't care if its fresh meat and they don't have a freezer. Don't yell at me TT^TT ****not that you were going too…or are you o-o****)**

She walked straight to back and grabbed one of the recently packaged ones. Cayden kicked the door closed and handed the meat to Sig, her gaze instantly setting on a familiar little boy.

"Kevin!" She smiled, putting her hands on her hips.

He looked up at her over the counter, smiling, "You work here?"

"Kinda, I guess." She smiled at him then she turned to Sig, "Is there anything else you need me to do?"

"Yes, can you pick up these things from the store?" He handed her a small piece of paper.

"Okay." She smiled, doing a quick scan of the list.

"Miss, I never got your name." Kevin said, looking up and her and pulling on the sleeve of her new gray sweatshirt.

"Oh, I forgot I never told you." Cayden kneeled down and ruffled his hair, "My name's Cayden."

"Well, Miss Cayden, may I come with you?" Kevin asked, looking at the ground, face flushed.

"If it's okay with your mother." Cayden smiled up at the woman he was with.

She nodded and Kevin gave a little cheer.

"Is there anything we could pick up for you while we're there?" Cayden asked as Kevin took her hand.

**(A/N: Just if anyone is wondering, Kevin is 5 years old :3)**

"Oh, in fact, yes. I was going to go to the store later, but if you could pick these up, I would be grateful." Kevin's mother reached into her purse and pulled out a little piece of paper, handing it to her, "Also, here's some money."

Kevin's mother handed Cayden a pouch filled with money.

"Okay, after would you like me to bring them to your house or bring them here so you can pick them up?" Cayden asked, putting the pouch in her waist bag.

"You can bring them here. We don't live that far and Kevin has a play date later, so if you could drop him off there, that would be good." Kevin's mother smiled at her.

"Sure thing." Cayden nodded and looked down at Kevin, "When we're done, can you show me the way?"

"Yep! I know the way!" He grinned up at her, green eyes sparkling.

"Also, whatever money is let you may keep." Kevin's mother informed her, smiling.

"Oh, okay." Cayden smiled, leading Kevin to the door, "Let's go then."

"Yay!" Kevin cheered, his eyes widened as he saw Alphonse.

He hid behind Cayden, still clutching onto her sleeve. Al walked over to Cayden, armor clanking against the ground.

"Where are you going?" He asked, glancing down at Kevin, "And who is this?"

"I'm going to the store to get some things and drop Kevin off at a friend's house, as well as getting things for his mother." Cayden informed him, looking down at Kevin, "There's no reason to be scared. He's one of my best friends."

Kevin slowly walked out from behind Cayden and placed a hand on Al's leg, staring up at him.

"Hello." Al said, cheerfully.

"H-Hi…w-what's your name?" Kevin asked, getting ready to run back and hide behind Cayden.

"Alphonse." Al said, looking down at the little boy.

"Well, Kevin, we should get going." Cayden giggled when she saw his face.

"Okay!" He shouted, running away from Al and hiding behind Cayden.

Cayden laughed and shook her head, "I'll be back soon."

"Be careful." Al said, going back to sweeping.

"I will." Cayden said, sarcasm in her voice.

xXxXx

Cayden sighed as she placed the bags of groceries on the counter. It had taken a while to get to Kevin's friend's house from the store.

"Sig! I'm back and I think I got everything!" Cayden shouted, getting a muffled okay in response.

She shoved her hands in her pockets and walked towards the windows, looking out. She instantly noticed Alphonse wasn't there and the broom was lying on the ground. Cayden pushed opened the door and looked around, searching for him.

"Where did he go? He was here when I came back…" Cayden questioned, concern rising in her voice.

She saw something move in one of the dark alleys and she began walking towards it. Pressing against the wall, she looked around the corner. Nothing was there. She ran to the other side and looked around, instantly hearing the familiar clank of metal on concret. Running towards the sound she found Al, sitting in a lit up alley.

"Alphonse Elric! Where were you?!" Cayden shouted, hands on her hips.

"Shh…" He put a finger to his mouth, "I'm being followed."

"By who?" Cayden asked, walking over and sitting beside him.

"Some guys and a girl who want me to go with them, saying I might learn something about myself." He replied, looking around.

"Then I'm coming with you!" Cayden smiled evilly as she knocked off his head and slid down into his armor.

"Hey! Get out! I've told you before, that's weird!" Al shouted, trying to pull her out.

"No! You can't feel it! Shut up!" Cayden growled, amusement in her voice.

"I don't care get o-!" He was cut off by a loud snap and the pipe above them breaking open.

Some guy jumped down, slashing at Al. He dodged, shaking Cayden around it his armor. Al hit the guy in the face, the guy's sword going under his helmet, throwing it off. Al kicked the guy in the stomach, sending him backwards.

"Aw man, not my head again!" He grumbled just as a woman jumped onto him, ready to go inside him.

"Sorry to drop i-huh?" She questioned, seeing Cayden inside.

Cayden smirked, holding up two daggers, one in each hand, "Sorry, occupied!"

"What the shit? I thought this kid was just a suit of armor!" The chick shouted to the other guys.

"He's not a suit of armor!" Cayden yelled, jumping up and sliding out of Al, kicking the chick off him.

"Loa, who's this little girl?!" The chick growled, shooting a glance and the muscled up guys behind Cayden.

"YOUR DOOM!" Cayden shouted, laughing evilly.

Everyone froze and stared at her, with an 'are you kidding me' look on their faces.

"Okay, looks like I gotta work on that…" She laughed nervously, clapping her hands and hitting them on the ground, causing the ground to come up and throw Loa and the chick backwards.

"She's an alchemist?!" The chick shouted to Loa.

"Do you think she knows what the boss is looking for?" Loa asked as he swung his sledgehammer at Al.

"Possibly." The chick said, running at Cayden.

Cayden got ready to attack the chick running at her, but she went for Al as soon as Loa appeared behind Cayden, swinging his sledgehammer down at her. Cayden closed her eyes and raised her arms above her head, acting as a shield. She opened one eye and found Al standing in front of her, pushing the sledgehammer back. Cayden clapped her hands, sending Loa backwards just as the girl jumped onto Al's shoulders again and slid into his armor.

"Again with people getting inside me?! Get out! It's weird!" Al shouted, flailing his arms around.

"Stop moving!" Cayden heard the girl yell, watching Al's arms stretch out straight, "I just have to slow you down!"

"Al, behi-!" Cayden was cut off by someone covering her mouth and holding a blade to her throat.

"If you don't come with us the girl dies." The guy behind Cayden growled, causing Al to freeze and be taken down by Loa.

"Wait, Dorchet, she's an Alchemist!" The chick's voice came from inside Al.

"Boss only said we need the tin can over there." Dorchet growled, nose bleeding.

Cayden clapped her hands and grabbed the blade, turning it to dust, moving Dorchet's hand away from her mouth.

"You shouldn't hold a sword to my throat, it's not very nice." She sighed, calmly crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh, shut up, you brat!" Dorchet shouted, grabbing her by the hair.

She let out a gasp and closed her eyes annoyed, "That's not nice either…"

She clapped her hands and placed them on Dorchet, causing him to let go of her and go flying backwards. Dorchet charged at her and Cayden held up her hand, signaling to stop in front of her.

"Back away and go stand by your friends or I won't hesitate to kill you." Cayden growled, glaring at Dorchet.

He slunk back, confused.

"Now then, why do you need him?" Cayden asked, clapping her hands and turning her auto-mail covering into a sword.

"We aren't gonna tell a little girl like you anything!" Dorchet shouted, standing his ground near Al.

"Tell me or you aren't gonna make it back!" Cayden yelled, causing him to shrink back a little.

"The Boss needs him!" Dorchet snarled, kicking Al's head.

"For what?" She growled, taking a step towards him.

"I'm not allowed to say…" He responded, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Bullshit! Tell me now!" Cayden yelled, grabbing onto his shirt and holding her blade up to his throat.

"Immortally!" He said, putting his hands up and trying to pull away from her, "He wants to know the secret of your friend's body!"

"Seriously?! That's it?!" She began laughing, letting go of him and turning her back to him, "That's easy!"

"You know how?" He asked, eyebrows rising.

"I'm not gonna tell y-" She was cut off by him kicking her it the back, causing her to fall to the ground, "Hey! What the fuck!"

He held her down with his foot, "I think you should just come with us."

xXxXx

Cayden opened her eyes, sighing. She had just listened to a boring conversation about chimeras and the military, or at least something like that. She looked up at Al from her place in his lap.

"Wonder how shorty is gonna react to this." She laughed, looking down at her bound up wrists.

Al chuckled softly, shaking his head slightly. Dorchet jumped off the box he was seated on and knelt in front of Al and Cayden. He put a hand under Cayden's chin and tilted her head up to get a better look.

"You look just like that bitch, Alexandria…" He growled, pipe hanging out of his mouth.

Cayden stiffened at hearing her mother's name, "Y-you knew my mother…?"

"Knew her? Shit, I dated her for a couple months!" He laughed, breathing out a ring of smoke, "Then this happened, became a chimera and disappeared for awhile. Found out she married and a kid while I was gone."

"Well, she's dead now." Cayden huffed, refusing to look at Dorchet.

He grunted, standing up as the door opened. A guy with sunglasses walked in followed by Loa and some others guys.

"So this is the guy?" He asked, coming to a stop in front of Cayden and Al.

He leaned down and grabbed the rope around Cayden's wrists, lifting her up and throwing her into the wall across the room. She hit the wall with a thud, landing on some boxes.

"Cayden!" Al shouted, trying to get to her.

"I'm fine." She smiled, sitting up, "But pretty boy over there isn't gonna be when I get out of these!"

"Oh, shut up." He gun with the sunglasses growled, taking off Al's head and looking inside him, "Wow, you really are empty…"

"Hey!" Al complained.

"Nice to meet ya, kid. The name's Greed!" He said, pointing to himself.

Cayden got off the boxes and walked over to Al and Greed. Dorchet pulled out a new sword, pointing it at Cayden.

"Don't even think about it dog boy." She growled, clapping her hands and turning the rope around her wrists into sand.

She sat next to Al with a huff, ignoring all the looks she was getting. She looked up at Greed and instantly saw the Ouroboros tattoo on his hand. She jumped up and took hold of his hand, staring at it. Greed jumped back slightly, startled.

"Y-you have one too?" She glanced up at him then back at his hand.

Greed pulled his hand away and asked, "So you know what this is?"

"Met some people in Central with that mark. I was kidnapped by the freaky one with green hair…" Cayden muttered, letting his hand go.

"That dumbass Envy?" Greed laughed, kneeling down, "So Al, is it? What does it feel like? To be nothing but a soul with a body that can never die."

Cayden clenched her fists and stared at the ground as Al asked, "How do you know about me?"

"How you ask? I have my ways…let's just say things like this get around." Greed chuckled, lowering his sunglasses.

"Why did you bring me and my friend down here?" He asked calmly.

"I don't know why they brought your friend, but I need to find out how to transmute a soul to a physical object…just think about it, you do that and you have yourself an eternal life! And I want it!" He grinned, showing off his pointy teeth.

Cayden laughed, shaking her head, "Why on Earth would you want that?! It's bad enough he's stuck like this until we get his body back!"

"Because I'm Greed! I want everything!" He shouted, "And I really want eternal life! And the secret to that lies in your buddy here! And he's gonna help me get it or I'm gonna rip him apart and find out by myself!"

"Good luck with that! I won't let you touch him!" Cayden snarled, clapping her hands and transmuting a nearby chain into a sword just as Al finished a transmutation circle, causing the ground in front of him to turn into a giant fist and punch Greed in the stomach.

Cayden swung her sword at him and it just simply broke in two as it made contact. She stared at it in confusion and slight terror, not realizing Greed was aiming a kick for her head. She made a yelping noise and dodged it before it made contact. Greed grabbed a hold of Cayden's throat and held her up in the air. She clawed at his hand to get him to drop her, but it did nothing.

"Wait, Greed, she said she knows how to transmute a soul to a suit of armor." Dorchet said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Perfect!" He cheered, dropping Cayden on the ground.

Greed knelt in front of Cayden, tilting her head up, "Okay then, you can tell me if your buddy doesn't."

Cayden coughed, pulling away from him and crawling into Al's lap, holding onto his arm.

Greed sighed, "I'll give you some time…anyway you have to do way more than that to kill me."

Suddenly a sledgehammer flew by, taking off half of Greed's head, blood flying everywhere. Cayden pressed against Al, terrified.

"W-why would you do that?! He was your friend!" Al shouted, bringing Cayden closer to him.

Greed held up a finger and his head slowly began to grow back, causing Cayden to gag. He cracked his neck and looked down meeting Al's eyes.

"Now that is how you kill someone…" He turned to Loa, annoyance in his voice, "You could've at least done it cleaner…"

"Uh…sorry…" Loa muttered.

"Anyway, so you see you can't come at me half-assed." He said, blowing blood out of his nose.

"So you're immortal?" Cayden asked, crossing her arms.

"Not really, that's why I need a body like this." He said, knocking on Al's armor, "Ever heard of a homunculus? An artificial being…a person that isn't really a person. Well, that's what I am…and I've been here for about 200 years."

"That's impossible! It's just a theory!" Al shouted, leaning forward slightly.

Greed just laughed, "You were told human chimeras didn't exist and yet here they are…so nothing is impossible…And then there's you…the fact that you exist proves all that, you're just a soul."

"He isn't just a soul. He had a body once and we are trying to get it back." Cayden muttered, glancing at the floor.

"Whatever. Now that I told you my secret, tell me yours. What did they do to your soul…?" Greed asked, holding out his hand.

"I…I don't remember how I got this body…I'm afraid I can't tell you…" Al murmured, looking at the ground.

"Okay then…you know, right?" Greed asked, pointing to Cayden.

"I don't know how his brother did it…I…I just saw the outcome of it…" Cayden whispered, pulling her knees to her chest.

"Okay, so where is this brother?" Greed asked, eyebrows rising.

"He's…gone…" Al muttered, putting his arms around Cayden's waist, causing her to jump slightly.

"Oh…I'm sorry…I didn't realize…" Greed sighed, shaking his head, "Sorry about your loss."

"Everything will be okay." Loa said, propping his sledgehammer up on his shoulder.

Cayden looked up at Al, questioning look on his face. He just shrugged as Greed turned and walked towards the door, leaving them alone with Martel and Dorchet.

**(A/N: Sorry ending it here because I wanted to get these two chapters up before I have to go back to school in two days TT^TT I'll update when I can, but I'll be busy a lot. Also I'm thinking of starting a Fairy Tail fan fic, but idk when it will be out and I will most likely be drawing random pictures in any of my classes so I might draw a quick sketch of what Cayden looks like and might post it on DeviantArt, I will let you guys know if I do if you wanna check it out :3)**


	15. Author's Note :D

Okay, first week of school down… *aggravated sigh* I haven't been able to really type/write anything, but when I come up with ideas I write them down to use later :D sorry if it takes a while to update and thanks for taking the time to read my fan fic ^-^

Edward: You are taking forever to write this! Hurry it up!

Me: You just shut your face…

Edward: Make me!

Me: You wanna go, Shrimp Boy?! *crosses arms*

Alphonse: Guys, be nice…

Edward and Me: You stay out of this!

Cayden: Both of you shut up before I kick both of your asses!

Me: Bring it on, Cayden! I control what you do! *grabs pen and paper, scribbling fiercely*

Cayden: Just try it! *crosses arms*

Me: *laughing evilly* Okay!

Cayden: *starts walking towards Edward* …uh…what are you doing…?

Me: Oh, nothing! *humming as I scribble more words on the paper* Now, Edward…you do this…

Edward: Hmm…what? *stares at arm as it begins to move*

Alphonse: What are you making them do?

Me: Fanservice to the EdxCayden fans *grins evilly*

Edward: *grabs the back of Cayden's head, face flushed* Okay, you can stop this now!

Me: Why should I?

Cayden: Because this is so wrong!

Me: So...not like anyone will care what happens.

Edward: To Hell with this! We all know who she gets with anyway!

Me: *stares at Ed, worried look on face* You wouldn't dare!

Edward: Just watch me! *stays quiet as I grab for the paper and start scribbling*

Alphonse: *runs forward and punches Ed in the face, causing him to let go of Cayden and fall to the ground* Sorry Brother! She made me do it!

Cayden: You are so childish!

Me: That's what makes me awesome!

Edward: Yeah, suuuurree! *stands up, dusting self off*

Me: Don't make me use this! *threatens with paper*

Edward: Do it and I'll tell everyone what happens next before you even upload the next chapter!

*Envy walks in*

Envy: Pipsqueak, shut up…everyone knows she won't get with you because you're short.

Edward: Shut up, you cross dresser!

Envy: What was that?! *gets in Ed's face*

Me: Both of you shut up! And Envy why are you even here?!

Envy: Oh yeah! For you! *hands a letter*

*quickly reads it over*

Me: That screws everything up...why didn't I think about that earlier! *kicks over trashcan*

Alphonse: What is it?

Me: I'll tell you later...it's something the viewers can't know about yet...

Alphonse: Oh...that sorta thing.

Me: Yeah, meaning we gotta end this here! I'm gonna go write my other fan fics because I don't have my stupid manga TT^TT

Everyone: *waving* Bye, see ya next time!


	16. Sneak Peek because you guys deserve it!

Jessie, I'm sorry! TT^TT I want it to be a new chapter but I only have about a paragraph of work done. Here's a sneak peek of what will be coming up in the next chapter though! :D I felt like I owe you and everyone else this much. It's not like it's a major hint of what's going to happen between Cayden and the Elrics but you should have it anyway!

Cayden sat by herself, drinking a can of CocaCola (:D). She had left Mr. Garfiel's shop shortly before Ed and Al had, just because she felt like exploring. She sighed and looked around, eyes falling on a boy with white hair and silver eyes. He was staring straight at her, eyes full of interest. Truthfully, it kinda freaked her out. She raised an eyebrow at him before grabbing one of her daggers and placing on the table, full view, giving him a warning that she doesn't play around. He smiled and winked at her before coming towards her. She let out a small grunt as he sat in front of her, eyes finding his auto-mail arm that she hadn't noticed before.

"Like auto-mail or somethin'?" He asked, raising up his arm.

"No, my friend is a mechanic and my 'brother' I guess you can call him that, has an auto-mail arm and an auto-mail leg." She smiled slightly as she took a sip of her drink.

"Ah…mind telling me how he got it? I enjoy hearing how people got their auto-mail." He grinned, leaning against his arm.

"War." Cayden replied simply as she leaned back, taking a sip of her soda.

"Really? What exactly happened?" He asked, eyes getting bigger.

"I don't really know, wasn't there and he won't tell." She grumbled, looking around the room.

"Okay…" The white haired boy looked into her eyes, one eyebrow raised in question, "what is your name?"

"Cayden." She sighed, crossing her arms over her chest, "Yours?"

"Dean." He smiled at her.

"Nice to meet you." She murmured, casting a glance at where her dagger had been on the table.

It was gone. She quickly began looking around, almost falling out of her chair when she looked under the table.

"Looking for something?" Dean asked, smirking as he held up her dagger by the tip.

"Hey! Gimme that!" Cayden shouted, snatching it from him and putting back in her bag.

"So, how'd you get your auto-mail?" Cayden questioned.

"Let's just say I was doing something I shouldn't have." He gave her a weak smiled before changing the subject, "So, why are you in Rush Valley?"

"My 'brother' broke his auto-mail and my best friend works for Mr. Garfiel." Cayden sighed, hanging her head.

"Ms. Winry?" Dean asked, eyebrow rising again.

"Yup, that's her." Cayden smiled, standing up, "Well I should probably get back to them."

"I'll come with you, I've been meaning to get a tune-up." He smiled, standing up beside her.

"Uh…okay." She grabbed her backpack off the chair and slung it over her shoulder just as a familiar blonde boy and suit of armor walked past the restaurant, "Oh, never mind, they are right there. If you want you can come with us."

"In that case, come catch me." He smiled at her evilly as he held up her waist bag that had just been around her waist a minute ago.

"Hey, how did you do that?!" She asked, reaching for her bag.

"Secret!" He smiled, taking off.

"Hey!" Cayden shouted, running after him, laughing.

Dean ran past Ed and Al, causing them to stop and stare in his direction. Cayden laughed and slid off her cloak and bag as she got closer to the brothers.

"Hey, shorty! Hold this!" She shouted as she threw her stuff at Ed, her bag hitting him in the face.

"Cayden?" Al questioned watching her run after the white haired boy.

"Who was that guy?! And why is Cayden chasing after him?!" Ed growled, jealousy in his voice.

"Jealous?" Al teased, leaning towards his brother.

"What?! No! But that guy could have done something to her!" Ed shouted at Al, throwing Cayden's stuff at him.

There we go :D Hope you enjoy this little sneak peek! I want to add another but that will give way to much information and these are just ideas so if I post anymore they will be changed or omitted completely :3


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